Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: IS STYLE
by immortal1145
Summary: Magic. Is a product of neither legends nor fairy tales, but instead has become a technology of reality since a time unknown to people! Magic is the only reality in this world, and this is the story of the man who's very magic defined his generation. This is the story of Orimura Ichika, and his little sister, Byakushiki Setsura.. All props go to fujin of shadows.
1. Chapter 1

**Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: I.S Style**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own IS: Infinite Stratos OR Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei but I own this fiction and my own plot and techniques. All props go to fujin of shadows for writing the original story.**

 **Chapter 1 :**

My name is Orimura Ichika and this is my life…

Life…what a funny thing…

I've always thought that my life was worthless…

Time and again, since I could remember, I am drowned in sorrow that it almost made me give up life.

But I didn't, no matter how many times I wanted to just give up; there was something or someone preventing me from just throwing it all away. Mind you, I am very hard to kill in the first place, but I know that I can find a way to kill myself I were serious.

I would have but there is always something that prevents me from ending it all.

 **(Ichika AGE 6).**

When I was 6 years old, life was pretty simple. I have two beautiful sisters that I love dearly…

My older, by three minutes, twin sister, Madoka.

We used to do things together. We were the best of friends, and I'm always with her whenever she needs me. Madoka always have problems in dealing with other people. It's not that she's socially awkward, but she just doesn't know how to deal with people. She's always having difficulty in making friends, and I, being her twin, was always with her.

She also has a very unhealthy inferiority complex towards our elder sister, which I always reminded her to just let it go, although she never listens to me. Even though Madoka and I are twins, Madoka is very identical in the looks department with our elder sister, and that did not do any good. Everything she does was always compared to our elder sister's accomplishments, and even though Madoka is just 6 years old, the achievements of our elder sister when she was in our age was mind boggling.

A six year old girl should not have been sent to war, even if the entire continent was at war and even if she has the talents to fight in it.

Speaking of the eldest daughter of the Orimura family, her name is Chifuyu.

Chifuyu-nee is a very unique being. She's the most talented Magic Technician in her generation, being able to cast multiple B-class spells at the tender age of 6. That itself is worth praise.

Chifuyu-nee, presently fifteen-years old, is a very beautiful young woman. She is known throughout Asia, and some part of the world for her beauty, power, and efficiency in combat. She is the most powerful warrior that the Orimura family had ever produced in her generation.

She is very stern and strict, and somewhat cold, but that is to be expected. After all, she has been exposed to war in such a young age.

I believe wholeheartedly that Chifuyu-nee and I are very close. The rest of the clan, most especially the elders, looks at her as a prize, a possession even, my mother, bless her soul, looks at her as a subordinate, my dad looks at her the same way as the clan elders, she is a commodity, as asset to him, my twin sister looks at her as a rival, while cousin Kana looks at her as a threat. In the clan, I think I'm the only one who looks at her as a sibling, as a human being within the clan, and we get along real well because of that.

I truly adore Chifuyu-nee; I admire her, not because of her power or beauty. Those traits are merely a part of her entire humanity, I admire her because she is Chifuyu-nee, and that's enough for me to love her.

Now my family is a bit complex.

The Orimura Clan is a clan that gained famed and prominence during the third world war. The clan itself is a clan filled with soldiers, in fact, with the family ruled by my grandfather, the great Orimura Ichigo **(don't ask)** , the clan became the most notorious clan in the country when it comes to military strength.

My mother may not be an immediate member of the main family but when she leads the family's forces, when Isane Orimura leads the Orimura clan's military force, the gates of hell will open to those unfortunate enough to stand in her way.

The warriors under my mother's command have enough training to fight and win World War Four if they wanted to. Those warriors are pretty much war veterans with an insane amount of experience and skill. My mother is the brains of the operation, and with her leadership, those men became unstoppable killing machines. My mother's unit is so dangerous that it is deemed by our own government inhumane in deploying them in any war.

My mother's unit is the reason why Japan was untouchable during World War 3.

The less said about my father, the better. Orimura Kurei was a businessman and politician, and he was good at it. He was a powerful magician in his own right, not as talented as mother (his wife), Chifuyu-nee (his daughter) or grandfather (his father), but he can hold his own in a fight. What my father lack in strength, he makes it up with his sharp mind and ability to manipulate anyone with a few well-chosen words.

Regardless of the fact that he is my father, regardless of the fact that I look exactly like him, I never liked him, I never did. Whenever I looked at him, I was always given the expression that he cares more about his status than his own family.

I could not help but chuckle at this. I am the black sheep of the family. Unlike my sisters, my mother, my father, my cousin, and my grandfather, I do not fight. It's not that I can't fight, I can fight, and when it comes to it, I am as dangerous as any member of my family. The reason why I don't fight is because I have an abnormal type of magic, a type of magic that prevents me in using modern magic.

Because of my refusal to fight, the clan elders, since I was five, tried to kick me out of the clan, only to be prevented by my mother and grandfather, my father did not get involve though. For some reason, my mother adores me so much, and my grandfather seems to be interested in me. I sometimes have the feeling that they knew my secret, and they were just waiting for me to show my fangs.

I wonder how patient they are with me.

Still, unlike my family and my clan, I do not want to be a soldier; I want to be a doctor, or an artist, or a musician, or a cook. I'm good at a lot of things that are deemed useless by my clan, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

I am me, and I will go on with my life as I choose.

But still, sometimes, I wonder, if what I said is true. I am holding a major part of what defines me as me, and sometimes, I am afraid that the monster that defines who I am will bursts out someday, and I am afraid for that day to come.

 **(Ichika Age 7)**

Age 7, the roller coaster that is my life started at that age. I can still remember the person that became the catalyst of the beginning of my life.

The catalyst was a girl.

A girl that goes by the name Setsura.

I still remember how we met like it was yesterday.

I was taking a walk around Tokyo, eluding the bodyguards that my mother assigned to protect me. I always loved taking walks around Tokyo Bay during the sunset, and the sky in this particular day was nothing short of marvelous, stunning even.

I look at the sun as it sets, and I am at awe because of its beauty.

But the beauty of the setting sun pales in comparison to the beauty of the little girl that I saw in this particular day, the beauty of the girl that changed my life, forever, was breathtaking.

As I watch the sun set and await the moon to rise, I notice a girl running across the street. I notice that she was slightly bleeding and her dress, which were made out of low quality fabric, were torn.

I frown at this as I decided to intervene. I am slightly mad that my viewing of the setting sun was interrupted but I could not just allow a young girl get hurt by men twice her size.

The one thing I am proud of is my speed, even without magic, I am very fast. I quickly maneuver myself in front of the girl, grabbed her hand, and run as fast as I can while navigating around the buildings near Tokyo Bay to evade those who were chasing the girl.

The girl struggled for a bit, but when he noticed that I mean her no harm, she conceded and allowed me to move her around. Thirty minutes of running, I stopped somewhere near the port of Tokyo. I was slightly gasping for my breath and I could feel the girl was doing the same.

"Are you okay?" I asked her with a slightly worried tone, and that was the first time I ever laid eyes on a living master piece.

Whitish-silvery colored hair that resembled the stars above the night sky, and it was smooth as silk. Gleaming blue eyes that resembled the finest sapphire. Lips as red as a ripe strawberry, and snow white skin as pale as snow itself. As I gazed before her, I could not help but be taken aback at how beautiful this girl before me is.

She must be younger than me by at least a year but she held unrivaled beauty, a beauty that would put Goddesses to shame.

I am an artist, I've painted fictionally women with features that I deem beautiful, but this girl was far more beautiful than anything my mind could ever come up with. I have created portraits of a number of beautiful women that I know, but this girl, I doubt that I could capture the magnitude of her beauty in a simple canvas.

"Thank you!" A melodic, soprano voice said with a weary tone, and I could not help but marvel at her again. A girl with her beauty possessing such an angelic voice!

I must know her name! I told myself in determination.

"Don't mention it, and my name is Ichika." I told her as I extended my hand at her.

"Setsura," The girl answered shyly as she shook my hand shyly.

Byakushiki. I thought suddenly with a smile. Yes, that would be a fitting name for her, Snow White Expression, yes that would be fitting indeed.

I smiled at her again, before noticing that it was already twilight. I looked over the ocean, and marveled at another beautiful sight.

The moon, it was white, pitch white. I have seen the moon being full, I have seen a blue moon, but this is the first time I've seen a white moon, and it is such a marvelous sight.

"Beautiful," I muttered under my breath as I raised my hand to grasped the beautiful moon. "So beautiful," I whispered as my eyes did not leave the gleaming moon that resembled the most beautiful diamond that I have ever seen.

Setsura seems to agree with me as she glanced at the moon herself, a look of awe gracing her angelic smile. "Beautiful," She breathed and I smiled at her.

Regardless of how beautiful the white moon is, she is still many times more beautiful.

There was a minute of solace between the two of us when the men that were chasing her appeared. At the sight of them and the sound of their yelling, Setsura cower behind me, and I growled at the frighten expression that polluted her artistically beautiful face.

"Close your eyes; I don't want you to see this." I told her, and surprisingly, she did as I told her and closed her eyes.

Such a good girl.

I looked at them calmly before taking several steps towards them.

I despised violence, but I hate having to see that beautiful face being contaminated. I approached them, and in matter of seconds, they were unconscious and were thrown to the trashcan.

After I disposed of those men, she opened her eyes and thanked me again, and asked me how she could return the favor. I smiled at this as I told her to wait for me. I quickly run off towards the nearest art shop and hastily brought all the art supplies that I will need to paint a portrait.

After a minute or so, I politely asked her to pose for me for a painting, and she agreed, hesitantly, but she agreed nonetheless.

I asked her to stand in front of the ocean and below the white moon, and Setsura did, and after that, I started painting.

It was a strange feeling, but I swear, as I started painting her, I could see a visage of a beautiful phoenix behind her, smiling at me for some reason. That confused me a little, but regardless, I painted her using every skill that I could muster…

…and the output that I made was nowhere near satisfactory. When she looked at the painting, she was impressed by my work, but I was not. The art that I produced did not give justice to her beauty or the beauty of the white moon above us.

I frowned a bit, but a laughed suddenly distracted me from my disappointment, and when I looked behind me, I was startled to see a woman with the same hair and eyes as Setsura.

"Such a beautiful masterpiece." The woman complimented in a motherly tone, but I frown at this. Her voice, it sounded strong, but with every letter she utters, I could feel her words faltering.

"MOTHER!" Setsura shouted happily as she flung herself towards the woman.

As I watch them embrace each other, my suspicion was confirmed. The two were related, but it still felt strange. True, their auras are identical, but Setsura's Aura is also identical to an Aura that is very familiar to me.

Before I ponder on that thought, Setsura's mother spoke.

"Thank you for saving my daughter." The woman spoke as she held her daughter tightly. "…son of Kurei."

My eyes widen at this as I looked at the woman, only to find her gone…

How did she know my father's name?

 **Scene change.**

After their first meeting, seeing Setsura became a norm to Ichika whenever he went anywhere near Tokyo bay. Whether it be just a quick glimpsed of her, or him begging her to pose for him for another portrait, seeing her always made his day. She became his fourth favorite female, trailing behind his mother and his sisters: Madoka and Chifuyu.

But still, regardless of their growing friendship, he could not help but slightly be suspicious of her. He had seen her mother quite a few times, and he already hates her for some reason, but did not show it to her due to his fondness for Setsura.

He didn't know why, but her mother, whose name he still did not know nor cared to know, gave him a feeling like she is an untruthful and untrustworthy woman. Don't get him wrong, Setsura's mother is a likeable woman, but for some reason, he could not bring myself to like her, or to be even in the same room with her.

And another thing, Setsura's aura is really familiar. True, her aura is near identical to her mother, but there was a hint in her aura that made him weary of her.

He didn't know why but Setsura's Aura really made him jumpy whenever he was near her.

He knew that she has the potential to be a very powerful magician. The aura that surrounds her constantly is evident to that.

Proof of that, the psion light that she constantly emits is massive, equivalent to that of one of his mother's elite soldiers, and that is saying something.

But still, there is this tint, stain in her aura that made him cautious of her, and made him further hate her mother.

He always shrugged that feeling off because of his fondness of her, but that change when he first saw her cast an uncontrolled magic.

 **Scene change: Ichika point of vue.**

"Ichika-kun, you don't look so good." Setsura's mother commented, and truth to her words, I look like I've been through a meat grinder. My clothes were torn; I'm bleeding from eight different places, and fractured several of my bones.

"Of course I don't look so good. I attack the husband of the woman who leads the military unit that can fight and win World War 4." I groaned weakly as I collapsed on one of her sofas.

"You attack your own father?" Setsura's mother exclaimed in surprise.

"I should have killed the bastard." I muttered darkly before throwing an enveloped towards her. "I should kill you as well." I told her while glaring at her. "Shirayuki-hime, the first daughter of the current emperor and the first line, or should I say, the former first line to the throne to the Japanese empire. That is your name and title, right?" I asked her, and my only answer was her smiling at me.

"You not just inherited your father's looks, you also inherited his brains." Setsura's mother said with a fond smile. "You are correct, I am that woman, or to be more precise, I was that woman."

I looked at her critically as I move my body, wincing at the feeling of pain I felt with every sudden movement. "Is Setsura here?" I asked her coolly, and when she shook her head, I sigh in relief as I stood up. I did not want her to listen to this conversation.

"You know, I always found it funny whenever I felt weary of Setsura. I like her so much, and she's a beautiful and wonderful model, but my problem with her is her aura." I spoke casually while Shirayuki-hime merely smiled at me.

"Her aura is familiar, so familiar in fact that it is almost nostalgic, but I never figure it out why her aura is familiar until I saw her lose control of her aura." I narrowed my eyes a bit, feeling relieved that my body was slowly being healed. "Can you tell me why her magic, uncontrolled or not, is similar to my father's and grandfather's magic? Can you tell me why she is capable of using the Orimura Family magic"

"You're a bright and mature child; you know the answer to that."

I growled at this but I remain composed. "Your right I know the answer to my question. Magic is hereditary, and that means one thing, you had an affair with one of the main members of the family." I glared at her harshly at this. "…you had an affair with my old man, am I correct?"

"Yes," She answered with a smile, and that smile made me lost all the composure I had. I thrust my hand towards her, and a black sword flew from my hand towards her in a speed that matches a bullet. It was a simple straight edged sword with a simple crossguard and a round pommel.

Setsura's mother, Shirayuki-hime, did not move an inch as the sword that I hurled at her suddenly disappeared.

"Mirror Magic, the magic that allows the caster to absorb all sorts' external energies and convert it into a useable energy that you Orimura's call **[Blaze Luminous]**." Shirayuki-hime stated as the sword that I created appeared in her hands. "The only way to use **[Blaze Luminous]** for spells and attacks is the use of a spell that is, the most basic yet most useful spell for every user of Mirror magic, **[Luminous Illuminate]** , the catalysts of your spells and techniques." she continued while examining the sword, she paused for a moment before she said " **[Luminous Illuminate]** is a spell that allows an Orimura to project the energy within them and combine it with the energies around them to form a weapon that helps them absorb large quantities of energy and assist them in converting energies into **[Blaze Luminous]**. **[Luminous Illuminate]** is also a tool for casting spells, henceforth; why your CAD resembles rosaries, crosses, and bracelets." she kept talking so casually that It took everything in me not to snarl at the bitch.

"The power **[Luminous Illuminate]** depends on the quality of the construction, and the quality is measured on how metallic it looks. For a seven years old to have a **[Luminous Illuminate]** that is 35% metalic is beyond prodigious." she finished her little monologue. I was startled by her summarization of my abilities. I know what my abilities are and the nature of my abilities, but I did not expect her to know that much by just merely touching something that I produce out of a whim.

I was so startled by her analyzing my magic so easily, that I did not notice the sword that I made being thrown at me until it pierce my chest. The sword, did not hurt me one bit, as I programed my creations to disperse whenever they touch my body without my permition, but my distraction was enough for Shirayuki-hime to close the distance between the two of us, and point a gun to my head.

"I do hope that you know what my magic is." She said to me with a smile.

"Decomposition," I answered coldly as I face the end of the barrel of her CAD.

"You really did your homework on me; I'm impressed especially that my magic is supposed to be top secret. Even after I faked my own death, my abilities remains to be a national secret." She complimented me as she slowly pressed the gun to my head. "A seven year old knowing a national level secret is truly an impressive feat."

"You can't use your magic anymore, can you?" I stated calmly, not showing any emotions whatsoever

"You want to bet."

I shook my head before taking a step forward, not caring whether the gun is further press to my forehead. "No, my statement was wrong, it's not that you can't use magic anymore, it is more like you won't use magic anymore." I stated confidently. "You are currently suffering from a syndrome known as Nesting Integration. Nesting Integration is a syndrome that slowly kills a magician from the inside-out by causing their own magic to collapse inwardly."

Shirayuki's smile faltered a bit as she lowered her gun. "You really are your father's son."

"I take that as an insult, but considering that you can beat me, I won't say anything else." I mumbled as I collapse back to the couch. "You are dying, you know that, but what impress me the most is the fact that you lasted this long. Most people with NIS tend to die in a week, but you lasted for five years."

"Is that respect I hear from you?" I nodded and she smiled again. "Thank you," Shirayuki-hime said with a curt nod.

There was silence between us as I tried to form question in the top of my mind, and after a minute, I spoke again. "My father, he knows of Setsura's existence, and he did not take responsibility for his actions, am I correct?"

Shirayuki-hime frown as a rueful expression graced her face. "You need to understand…"

"My question is a simple yes or no question, please answer it accordingly."

With another moment of silence, that former princess of the country of Japan let out a sigh. "Yes, and you know the reason why. Illegitimate children are frowned upon by the noble clans of this country."

"But you're the Princess of this country, and the suppose heir to the throne!" I reasoned suspiciously, before my eyes widen in realization. "You demented bitch!"

"You really are a bright boy." She told me, and I tried to restrain myself from attacking her, and proceeded to ask my next question.

"How much time do you have left?" I asked her with a barely contained growled.

"A year, at most." She answered me with a solemn tone.

 **Scene change Ichika POV.**

"You are an idiot." I exclaimed in anger while looking down on Setsura's mother's bleeding body. I was also covered with blood, but none of the blood belongs to me.

Setsura was cradling her mother in her arms while crying hysterical, tears falling down her eyes as she called her mother repeatedly and hysterically.

It has been three months since I confronted her about Setsura's birth, and the two of us became civil with each other, but I still cannot stand her. My relationship with Setsura on the other hand was a strained because of that revelation, but I still regarded her as a close friend. It was not her fault that she was born by an implicit affair by my bastard of a father and her mother.

Still, for some unknown reason, I made it a point to always visit Setsura every day for the past three months, and I did everything within my power to help the two get comfortable with their life.

I am a seven year old boy from the main house of the Orimura clan; I have the resources to take care of a small family without attracting the attention of any of the upper members of the clan.

I was in the way of visiting them, when I felt Setsura's aura in a state of panic. I rushed towards the direction where Setsura currently is, only to see a dozen men attacking them, and Shirayuki-hime fending them off with her magic. True to her reputation as the Pearl of the Rising Sun, even in her weakened state, she was able to take down half of them before she succumbed to her sickness.

I arrived the moment she collapsed and I took over the fight after that, creating a solid sword with my blood, I quickly disposed of the remaining men with ease. As an Orimura, we are required to learn how to use a sword, and with skills that not even my family knew I had, taking care of those men, even though they were magician with just my sword play is easy for me.

Shirayuki-hime, regardless of the fact that she was dying, was smiling at me. "You came," Shirayuki-hime said with a rather blissful tone.

I did not smile at her, and regarded her with a cold gazed. "I did not come here to save you; I came here to save her." I said while pointing at Setsura who was currently crying her eyes off for her mother.

She chuckled while a small amount of blood slipped down from her mouth. "That is good enough for me." She said with a weak tone.

"Shut up," I hissed in irritation before pointing a handgun towards her. The handgun was the only CAD that I ever used because it helps me project my regeneration ability. "I'll heal you, so just shut up and conserve your energy." I then concentrated the necessary amount of psion, which took the form of a spherical yellow energy but before I could pulled the trigger, Shirayuki-hime, regardless of her injured state, was able to cancel my magic with an unknown method.

I narrowed my eyes as I felt my arm going numb. "What are you thinking? I was just about to heal you."

"Don't bother; you'll just be wasting energy in a lost cause." She stated with an accepting tone as a gentle smile graced her lips.

"MAMA, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!" Setsura shouted desperately as she shook her dying mother lightly. As I watch her, I felt my heart ache in pain.

Shirayuki-hime patted her daughter on the head, her eyes shedding some tears. "Don't cry for me, my dear, I don't deserve those tears."

"Let me heal you, please let me heal you." I begged through gritted teeth. "I don't want to see her like this." I told her as I clenched my chest in pain. I may not consider her as a sister, but she is still my friend, a dear friend.

Shirayuki-hime let out a chuckle at this as her eyes slowly loses their life. "I thought you don't…"

"I STILL DON'T!" I shouted fiercely. "But still, half the blood the flows through my body, flows through her. I'm responsible for her." I stated with a sullen tone, and I felt, for that instant, that I was lying to myself but I ignored it.

"Because she's the sin of your father."

"HER LIFE IS NOT A SIN. THE ACT THAT MADE HER MAYBE A SIN, BUT HER LIFE IS NOT A SIN." I shouted indignantly, disgusted that Setsura's own mother thought of her as a sin. "Life, no matter how it is form, can never be a sin."

"What a wise child." She exclaimed before looking at her daughter with her almost lifeless eyes. "My dear, enough, enough… stop crying and listen to me please, mommy's time is almost up."

"MAMA PLEASE, PLEASE ALLOW ONIISAN TO HEAL YOU." Setsura begged desperately, and I was surprised by this development.

She knows the true extent of our relationship, I did not expect that.

"Shush, my dear, and let me speak." Shirayuki-hime ordered softly, her voice weakening by the second. "I have to go now, dear, and I just want to say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm a poor mother, I'm sorry that I couldn't give you the life that you deserve, I'm sorry that I'm only a burden to you, I'm sorry for lying to you." She looked at me with begging and desperate eyes, conveying a message that I understand painfully.

After a moment, I looked at the ground as I held back my tears. "I can't ever see her as my little sister, but I'll take care of her to the best of my abilities without revealing her to any danger. I'll raise her to nr the woman befitting of her pedigree. I, the grandson of the current head of the Orimura Family, swear to you." I assured her passionately.

She smiled at those words as her hands fell to her side, her eyes finally losing their life. "Thank you!" And that was the last words that she had uttered before succumbing to her sickness and dying.

"Mother," Setsura called weakly and desperately, her voice broken which made me strangely want to engulf her in an embrace.

"Mother," She called again, but there was no response.

"Mother, Mother, MOTHER PLEASE, MOTHER PLEASE WAKE, DON'T LEAVE ME." Setsura begged desperately as her cries became louder and more desperate.

I clenched my hands into a fist, so tight that it bled, but it healed quickly because of my secondary ability. "I'm sorry that I was late, Setsura." I apologized sincerely as I stood behind her, not knowing what else to say to her.

There was a tense silence between the two of us, and in a move that I did not expect from her, Setsura let go of the corpse of her dead mother, and threw herself towards my arms.

I embraced her do to reflexes, and I adopted a look of solemn for her misfortune.

Regardless of the fact that I was covered in blood from head to toe, regardless of the fact that I did not like her mother so much, I held her tightly knowing that this is the only thing I can do to comfort her at the moment.

 **Scene change**

"This is some grim shit you got yourself into." Shinono Ryuuin, a man in his late forties, with shaven bald that does not give the impression of age. He usually wears a monk's robe, surprisingly really fitting him and his personality, commented as he and Ichika sat across each other. After the day's grim events, Ichika carried Setsura to a place that he knew she would be safe from danger.

The temple where he learned ninjutsu from.

"Will you shelter her for a while?" he asked his sensei seriously. "I'll take her from your care once I arrange a more permanent home for her, which will take me a month, two months at most."

"And how would you provide for her?"

His answered was in the form of Ichika throwing a book across the table. "Advantage of having parents who are rarely home, and having a clan who doesn't give a damn whether you live or die is that you can disappear for more than a week before they start searching for you." he said with a small smirk.

His sensei looked at the book, and his eyes all but widen. "Are you serious?"

"Somebody has to take responsibility for my father's stupidity, and unfortunately, the one who has to take responsibility is me." answered Ichika.

"And are you willing to sacrifice everything that defines you as you?" his master asked critically, and the answer he got was Ichika taking a pair of circular, heavily tinted, wire-framed orange sunglasses with goggle sidings from my pocket and putting them across his face.

"I have a feeling that she would be worth it." repeated Ryuuin mockingly before continuing seriously "And you are going to risk everything for that feeling alone, don't be a fool, Ichika." Ryuuin scolded the young boy harshly. "I know what you are going to do, and I will advise you to not do it. You can fight, you are a natural born fighter, but you are no soldier, you are not your mother. You do not want to fight, you do not have the will to deliver the finishing blow, and you refuse to raise a hand on those weaker than you. You will not last eight minutes in the battle field!"

"I don't care; I am still going to do this for her." Ichika stated, glancing at the room where his little sister was resting. "I owe her this much."

"Your father owes her, you don't owe her anything." Ryuuin stated harshly. "Take her to your grandfather, Orimura-sama will know how to deal with this." Ryuuin instructed him, but Ichika merely shook his head.

"The elders will kill her on the spot, and there is no way the royal family would shelter her. They will not even believe her when she says that she is Shirayuki-hime's daughter." Ichika debated, using the information that he gathered in his investigation to his advantage. "Shirayuki-hime was officially dead six years ago."

"The royal family has Kurazakura."

"The remaining children of the Emperor are currently fighting in a war, and they will not abandon the frontlines just to check on someone claiming to be the daughter of a dead woman." Ichika exclaimed knowingly, having prior knowledge at how the military works because of his mother.

"I promise Shirayuki-hime as she died before me that I will take care of her daughter as well as protect her. Setsura, I don't know whether or not I could see her as a little sister, but she is my friend, a very important friend, and I will be damn if I would allow her to face anything dangerous." Ichika said with determination.

"You are a boy, a seven year old boy. What makes you think that you can face the world as you are right now!?" Ryuuin demanded as he allowed his aura to flare in an attempt to intimidate Ichika.

It did not work as Ichika allowed his own aura to flare. His crimson aura easily overwhelming Ryuuin's aura as the room was flooded by a very thick psion wave. "I can see something beautiful within Setsura, and I will nourish that until she becomes a magnificent work of art. Even if I have to shed my own blood, I will make Setsura shine like a supernova!"

 **(Age 8)**

When I was eight years old, life was still simple, for me anyways.

"What is this?" My mother asked as she examined a gun on corner of my room. My mother looks exactly as Chifuyu-nee and Madoka, only different being is that she has shorter hair and a slightly more boyish look.

"That's supposed to be your birthday gift, mother, I made it myself." An eight year old boy knowing how to use a gun, something is wrong with this family.

"I see," My mother muttered as she examined the black handgun. "Elaborate!"

"The Songstress, a custom 13mm Auto Anti-magic pistol. It fires custom made rounds enough to pierce through a C-level magic shield with ease. 42cm long and 16kg in weight, eight rounds per magazine. The Songstress has more firepower than any ordinary human being, magician or not, can wield or hope to wield."

"And the rounds?"

"13mm explosive shells."

"Casing?"

"Pure Macedonian silver,"

"And the tips? Explosive or mercury?"

"Mercury tips, lace with the poison that you personally instructed me to make." There is something wrong with the family with a son that knows how to create slow acting poison.

My mother looked at the pistol and loaded it with a magazine full of bullets. "It's perfection!" My mother exclaimed in gleefully. "You make me the best gifts!" My mother added as she engulfed me in a tight hug.

I smiled a bit as I patted her on the back. To compensate for my inability to perform Modern Magic, I studied weapon making, both modern and ancient.

Magic can be used to block gunfire in a variety of ways such as altering its trajectory, decreasing its force, or decreasing its speed. However, magic can be overcome with overwhelming force. High-powered rifles were designed such that the rotational force of the bullets and the force they produce are difficult to overcome by most magical methods. I am very good in creating weapons like those.

Suffice to say, my mother was amused and ecstatic to the things that I make, and I personally made her army their rifles. The problem, last year, those weapons, my creations were pointed at me constantly.

 **Scene change Ichika POV.**

"Do we have too?" Madoka complained loudly while she fidgeted with her formal kimono.

"Unfortunately, yes, so stop complaining." Chifuyu-nee scolded her, looking absolutely stunning with the black kimono that she was wearing.

I shook my head at how typical they act around each other, and before they could start another argument, I stepped in between them. "Okay, enough, remember, we need to be at our best behavior." I told them, trying to be the voice of reason, as always. "Remember, this is the annual party for the noble clans of the country, we need to make a good impression." I feel like vomiting at the moment. I cannot stand most of the aristocrats of this country. I am a patriot and I would die for my country in a heartbeat, but that did not change the fact that most of the politicians in the country are corrupt.

I still wondered why the emperor did not just turn the country back to a monarchy. It would be the best for the country to have only one noble man ruling at the current age.

"That's easy for you to say, you actually could stand those boring geezers." Madoka grumbled and I merely smiled at her.

"I need to at least have something to compensate for my poor magic skills, and being a dirty politician is the first thing that came to mind." I don't want to tell them about my other occupation, considering my last run in with Chifuyu-nee's squad.

Those morons almost killed me, and I was doing them a favor for Kami's sake.

Disregarding those thoughts, in the past year, I did have my fair share in dealing with politicians, with and without the family knowing, and it seems that I inherited my father's ability to read people. And with that ability, my grandfather instantly taught me the finer arts of politics.

Being a member of a prominent clan sucks because you are expected to grow up fast.

"You do know that the elders won't antagonize you if you gave them the respect that they deserve." Chifuyu-nee told me, and I merely looked at her with a frown.

I choose not to comment on my sister's words. If only she knew the dealings of those fools outside of the clan.

"Let's just get to the party, and get this over with. I may tolerate those noble pricks, but I don't want to be anywhere near them for a long period of time. I don't want to be a prick like them." I muttered as I stride towards the Matsumoto Castle, the venue of the party.

"Hey, wait for us." Madoka shouted as I heard her running towards me, and when she caught up, she linked her arm with mine and smiled affectionately at me. I returned the smile, when I suddenly felt another person taking my other arm.

"You'll be our date tonight, so be grateful." Chifuyu-nee said with a beautiful smile.

"Of course," I answered with a small blush as the three of us entered the venue of the party together.

There is absolutely one thing to expect in a party hosted by aristocrats, and that is boring as hell.

Men and women flirting with each other and socializing with each other to either increase their political standings or cash. It is a sickening sight, but I guess I shouldn't complain, with the path I choose, I would be one of them in twenty years' time.

I'm already sick just thinking about it.

On one hand, I could lessen the elders' power in the family, and probably give Setsura a much decent life.

Always look at the bright side of things that has always been my motto.

"HEY IKKUN," A loud voice echoed throughout the ballroom, and I cannot help but smile as I wave at the person who yelled one of my few good nicknames. ShinononoTabane, my sister's best friend and one of the few women who I liked outside of my family and Setsura. She and I have a lot of similarities, the most prominent being that we loved our siblings very much.

"HEY IKKUN," Tabane shouted as she rushes towards me. The one thing that distinguishes Tabane from everyone in the room was that she was wearing a western dress modeled from the famous fairytale Alice in Wonderland as opposed to the expensive kimonos that flooded the room. She was given frowns by everyone that sees her but she ignored them, knowing that, in a straight fight, yes she can fight, she can beat anyone in the room, with the exception of Chifuyu-nee, and the emperor's three remaining children.

Tabane instantly engulfed me in a bone crushing hug. Thank Kami-sama for regeneration, while I awkwardly patted her on the shoulder while fighting back the blush that threatened to erupt from my cheeks. I'm an artist, I appreciate beauty in any shape and form, and Tabane is a very beautiful woman, and one of the few that I wanted to create a portrait of.

"It's nice to see you too, but could you let go of me, you're making a scene." I told her as the people around as started to whisper because of our compromising position.

"No, no, not until you show me that program that you made for the improve version of your Loop Cast system."Tabane requested with a cheeky grin.

Another thing that we have in common was our interest in CAD engineering. Tabane is a member of the Shinonono clan, one of the most prominent clan in the country that specializes in weapon manufacturing, which is strange, considering the family is so traditional that I sometimes wonder how such a conventional clan can be so advance when it comes to technology. The Orimura clan and the Shinonono clan have been long term allies since the end of World War Two. In proof of that alliance, the eldest daughters of the two families are best friends, and I am also close friends with the two youngest daughters of the clan.

The less said about the only son of the Shinonono family the better. That twat!

Now, because of the friendship between the clans, Chifuyu-nee, Madoka, and I tend to spend a lot of time with the Shinonono family, and because of that, I discovered my talent in CAD programming. I am not as good as Tabane, the woman has an IQ over 500 and I am not exaggerating, but I at least can think of things that she finds interesting.

For example, Loop Cast System….Loop Cast System is the Activation Sequence that skips the step of restarting each Activation Sequence. If the Magic Sequence is the same, then the CAD no longer has to restart the Activation Sequence each time. This is done by adding a copying power to the Magic Calculation Area's execution mode, adding a copy of the Activation Sequence's last parts to the Activation Sequence itself, so Magicians can endlessly invoke magic within their ability. Although the theory existed in the past, but to calculate the Invocation Sequence and copy the Activation Sequence separately at the same time, no one could do it until I have gotten bored in a particular Saturday night.

…and no, I'm not kidding. I perfected the Loop Cast system that no other CAD engineer and developer because of my boredom.

And because of that, Tabane decided that I should work in her family's company when I graduated college.

Not a chance in seven layers of hell. My other occupation is much more fun regardless of the fact that I felt like a hypocrite every time I go to work.

Getting myself out of Tabane's tight embrace was no small feat but I was able to do it. "So, where's Houki?" I asked curiously, knowing that Tabane is not the type to attend such mundane parties if she is not force or coerce.

"Well, she is with Papa and Mama now." Tabane then looked over her shoulders, and I looked as well, only to see Houki clinging to her father. The patriarch and matriarch of the Shinonono family were currently having a conversation with my parents. I frown when my father and I made eye contact, and I instantly turned away.

"You're still not in good terms with your daddy, huh?"Tabane inquired with a mischievous smile.

"I have my reasons why I'm acting like this."

I understand the reason why, but regardless of the law and dishonor that would befall our family, a man who will not acknowledge his own child, regardless of the circumstances, is trash in my book.

"That fool! If he had acknowledged Setsura, then the clan would have someone leading it in the future."

If there was something about Setsura that is easily noticeable, aside from her beauty, is her talent in magic. Both in the current and past generation, there is no one in this country more talented than Setsura when it comes to magic. Her potential is absolutely endless, and one of the reasons why I took her in is because I want to help cultivate that talent.

I may never looked or treat Setsura as my little sister, but I will not let her talents go to waste. Having her potential wasted is a crime that I will not tolerate.

My musing was cut short when a beautiful music echoed throughout the ballroom, and perked up. I looked at the dance floor and noticed that some couples are starting to waltz, which made me smile.

I love dancing, I absolutely love dancing.

 **Scene change general POV (Age 9).**

Because of World War Three, the old International monetary system had been abolished and changed into a new currency system. Now, instead of a worldwide agreement, the new International monetary system is merely a continental agreement.

In the continent of Asia, the largest currency is the Japanese Yen, the reason why is because they have the most well developed economy, and their military is just scary powerful.

In order for Ichika to support Setsura and his hobbies and research, he became a bounty hunter.

Considering Asia as a whole has been at war with each other for seventeen years now, the after math of World War Three is nowhere near pretty, it is not strange to find child soldiers in the battle field and them hunting bounties for an extra pay is also the norm. Another factor that assisted him in becoming a bounty hunter, a successful one at that, is that his parents were barely home and they rarely worry about him. Well, to be honest, kurei never showed he cared about his son in the first place, and Isane knows that there is no mess that Ichika can't get myself out of, and he prove that over and over by always escaping the watching eyes of her subordinates that have, again, the ability and skills to fight and win World War Four.

His grandfather on the other hand was a bit of a mystery. After his first three months as a bounty hunter, Ichika noticed his grandfather looking at him with suspicious eyes. He might always pretend to be oblivious, but he was worried, very worried.

And after more than one year of being in the bounty hunter business, one question always came to Ichika's mind whenever he hunts: 'Why is it that those who deserve higher bounties only have at least 5-digit bounty, but they have the strength equivalent to a Military class, A-grade magician, but those with 6-digit bounty are crap, well, most of them, why?'

For example, his opponent, a man nicknamed Zebra the sound demon, is an incredibly large and muscular man. He has slicked back dark red hair and eyebrow and a large number of vertical wrinkles on his forehead. Zebra's most distinct feature is his half 'glasgow smile', forming a large ragged tear from his lips all the way to his ear on the left side of his face, exposing all the teeth on that side. Adding to his intimidating appearance, Zebra normally wore a black sleeveless shirt, camouflage-patterned purple pants and brown boots. A mercenay was currently firing compress sound waves, that creates explosions on impact, towards Ichika, and the man has a bounty worth 50,000 thousand yen, while the weak fat excuse of a human being imbecile that he was protecting was worth at least 125,000 thousand yen, but the man has no skill whatsoever.

The paradoxe that Ichika observed in his current carreer is one of his little guilty pleasures. But now is not the time for pleasure, it's business time.

"Hey, Miguel right? You're from the Philippines, right? What do you say you just give that man to me, and we can split the bounty?" Ichika inquired rather hopefully before dodging another sound blast that ravaged the ground. "We don't have to kill each other, that guy's bounty is enough to give you a good life in the Philippines."

"[bastard, go to hell I am no sell out!]" the man replied in his native language.

Great, the man's honorable, just what he feared. While Ichika respects people like him, but in his honest opinion, they should choose their employers more thoroughly.

"[sorry for asking, but don't come crying to me when you regret what I am about to do you.]" Ichika said before stepping from the shadows and revealing himself to his prey. Ichika Is quite tall for his age, tall black hair that is parted in the middle, azure blue eyes and a slim but trained body. His usual outfit is comprised of a charcoal suit, leather riding boots, and a intricately knotted red cravat, covered by a full-length, and red frock overcoat (similar to a duster coat) with cape. He also wears a red fedora with a wide, floppy brim and a pair of circular, heavily tinted, wire-framed orange sunglasses with goggle sidings. He also wears a pair of black fingerless gloves. To hide his identity Ichika wore a pitch black face mask to hide the lower part of his face while the glasses had a simple charm that made people look away from them or make people incapable of focusing on his face. He tailored his own clothes so that no one can trace him, but enough about the outfit. Putting his right hand inside his left coat pocket, Ichika pulled an ornamental pistol (coyote stark gun) took aim and shot a simple blue beam that impacted on Zebra's chest and sent him flying away. All the while Ichika simply said " **kudou dan (Hollow bullet)** ". Zebra managed to regain his balancein mid air before he took a deep breath. That was how Zebra's magic opperated, by amplifying and manipulating his own voice, he can use it in different manners, knowing that Ichika did not allow him the time to use his magic and shot another **kudou dan (Hollow bullet)** this time hitting him in the stomach making the big man lose his breath, he tried to stand up one last time but this time a third beam, this one thiner, more focused than the previous two, pierced straight through him.

The fight ended at that moment as the injury that Ichika gave him was pretty deep, but it wasn't life threatening, Ichika made sure of it.

As Zebra collapsed, Ichika stalk towards my original target who, predictably, ran the moment his final henchmen fell. He thought about the only spell that he used in this fight. The **kudou dan (Hollow bullet)** , an ancient and outdated Orimura clan magic technique, one so ancient that Ichika was certain his grandfather is the only other practitioner of the spell. Basically the practitioner fires a powerful blast of concentrated Orimura magic at the target. The practitioner uses their hands, fingers, and other parts of their bodies. This often requires the user to take on a specific pose, with Ichika and Ichigo being the only recorded exceptions. In fact Ichika made into an art form to create more variations of the **Kudou dan (Hollow bullet).** Cutting his musings short, the bounty hunter made way towards the lard ass that he was hunting.

"Why do they always run?" Ichika muttered to myself as he lazily took aim with his pistol before shooting two pencil sized holes in the fat ones legs causing the target to not only fall to the ground but also black out due to the pain.

Nothing personal," Ichika told the two of them as black chains made from energy errupted from his back, Ichika created a net out of the chains, threw the net to ensnare his targets, before dragging them away to the nearest government office. As he was on his way he thought about his ward, Setsura.

The time for Setsura to be revealed to the clan has not yet arrived. She may have peerless talents in magic, and a bottomless potential, but she has a weakness that Ichika had yet to solve, and that is her weak body. Setsura is a healthy girl with no history of long-term sickness, so it is very baffling that she has a very weak body, in contrast to her health.

Ichika tried to find what's wrong by conducting weekly check-ups for Setsura, and he still can't figure out what's wrong with her.

Before anybody could debate the young Orimura's capabilities as a medical mage, please note that before Ichika became a bounty hunter, he wanted to become a doctor, and he had several tutors teaching me about medicine. Yes, it is strange for a six year old learning medicine, but again, Ickika is a member of a prominent noble clan, and they are expected to grow up fast. Ichika can hunt down and fight men stronger, faster, more experience, more skilled, and more powerful than him and win, doing a medical check-up for a girl a year younger than me is a piece of cake, especially considering that he has enough knowledge to be consider a Junior Medical student in any University.

Still, fortunately for him, the clan elders expect very little from him because of his low magic skills, and they concentrated every resources at their disposal for Madoka, something that she was very grateful for and him suspicious. But because of that, Ichika can somewhat move around without the worry of anybody from the clan discovering his secrets. Case and point, Ichika became a successful and well known bounty hunter throughout Asia in the span of two years, and he has the bounty over my head to prove it. Half a million, and he got that bounty just before his ninth birthday.

As a bounty hunter, Ichika adopted the code name Sin, for no reason other than it being cool and mysterious. That proves that even walking the battlefields can not take the innocence away from children.

As Sin, the bounty hunter, Ichika is known as a merciful bounty hunter, he never killed his targets regardless of the fact that the bounty can be collected whether the target is dead or alive. Ichika also tends to avoid hurting anyone aside from his targets, even if they are said target's subordinate, he always finds a way to not harm them and still get the target.

As a bounty hunter, Ichika gained both friends, and some enemies as well. Because Japan has become the most beautiful country in Asia and the world, nationalism and patriotism rules and don't tell Ichika he is bias which he might be, it is almost impossible to find criminals with large enough bounty for him to catch and make ends meet inside the country, so Ichika usually hunts abroad, in the middle of the freaking warzone. For example, Ichika is CURRENTLY in Roanapur in southeast Thailand.

Roanapur, the most lawless city in the world, and the common courtesy in this place is to greet everybody with bullets or lethal magic, whichever comes first.

Being the great patriot that he is, every time Ichika hunts, he always tries to help the Japanese troops to finish their missions, which always ends in him sabotaging the enemy, and also running away as the said troops chase him, guns and CAD blazing.

Apparently, Ichika is a notorious criminal because he attacked a prominent member of the Orimura clan, his father, and regardless of the fact that he deserves more than what Ichika did to him, he still has a hit on his head. What's worse, the person who's chasing me is his own sister, Chifuyu, and in fifty different occasion, Ichika was almost got incase in ice. He already lost count on how many times he suffered from frostbite, and if it weren't for his regeneration ability, Ichika is pretty sure that he would have lost an arm and a leg.

 **Scene change.**

"CAN WE NOT DO THIS?" Ichika shouted as he protected a large suitcase that held his pay. Apparently, Chifuyu and her unit, the Independent Magic Battalion, were temporarily in Roanapur to resupply. After he retrieved his pay, our hero accidentally met his sister and some of her friends, Yamada Maya and ShinonoTabane, in the middle of the city. The two of them stared at each other for a second before Ichika bolted, with Chifuyu following, CAD blazing.

"You tried to kill my father, you bastard. **Hissatsu hyoso (certain kill ice spears)** " Chifuyu shouted at the younger Orimura as she hurled icicle spikes, seven feet large, at him. Ichika dodged every attack that she threw at him as he maneuvered himself to lead her outside of the city. Roanapur is the mafia capital city of the world, and he did not want to face the army with the skills and bloodlust that had fought and won World War Three.

"It was two years ago, and the bastard is still alive." Ichika reasoned weakly before docking his head to avoid a Dragon made out of ice. Shaping an element into different forms requires great control over magic, and Chifuyu creating a Dragon made out of ice speaks volume of her skills. "Come on now, can we not do this now? I'm tired, and I need to buy something for my charge." Ichika saw a very well made and elegant gothic dress that he wanted Setsura to wear it in his next portrait.

Am I the only one who is weirded out by this?

Anyway Ichika continued to run while Chifuyu peppered him with spells like they were going out of fashion until...

"DIE," Chifuyu shouted as dozens of ice dragons flew towards Ichika.

"Screw it," Ichika muttered as he used his CAD, which is in the form of a watch of all things " **Amaterasu no josha (servants of the sun Goddesse)!** " he muttered loudly. Suddenly all of Ichika's surroundings turned completely dark before twelve gray wolves with red eyes appeared around him. Ichika's wolves clash with the Chifuyu's Ice dragons. The Ice dragons, on impact, incased the wolves in a large prison of ice, resulting into a mountain of ice after all my wolves were decapitated.

Now it might be different than the usual form but Ichika used Mirror magic, and as he himself said earlier people can recognise magical aura, so how was It that Chifuyu, an Orimura prodigy couldn't recognise Orimura clan magic? Well the answer is in the CAD that Ichika uses, you see Ichika's CAD was built with a scrambler inside it that scrambles the magic signature whenever his casts Orimura clan magic. The drawbacks of such a device, is that the potency of his magic is decreased by two ranks whichever spell he uses. For exemple a single Wolf would have been more than enough to bulldoze through Chifuyu's attack. Another drawback is that casting is a bit slugish. But the current scrambles was just a second generation scrambler, and Ichika is sure that the next generation scrambler is gonna adresse the issue with the casting speed. Unfortunately even Ichika's genius can not solve the problem of efficiency.

Well back to the story then. Ichika took several deep breaths, and waited to recover his energy before standing up and carefully making his way back to the city. He need to buy that dress for Setsura after all. Being incase in Ice was a cheap price to pay to see Setsura in that dress.

That sounded perverted; ah what the hell, Ichika is a nine year old bounty hunter, this is normal for him.

 **Scene change Ichika POV.**

"Well, home sweet home I guess." I mumbled to myself as I gazed upon my estate and my mansion, the mansion that I made with my own money and with my own two hands.

One thing you will learn when you become a bounty hunter is to never trust anything that did not came from your own two hands. Poisoning and sabotage is a norm in my line of work.

Seriously, I'm nine; I shouldn't be worrying about these kinds of stuff. I should be worrying about my grades, which are above average considering I use my spare time hunting for criminals with five to six, and sometimes, seven digit bounty, making friends, I have friends but the problem is, most of my friends my age are girls, with one exception, and my male friends are all hardcore scumbags of society…

Yeah, my life sucks but I at least have a mansion of my own. Most of my friends can say the same thing.

As I look up my mansion, I cannot help but smile in pride. My mansion has three floors, and wide enough to cover two football fields. My mansion has many rooms, with thirteen rooms being the main feature of my mansion, I love the number 13. My house has many features that I adore so much:

A library (you guys have no idea how many books I acquired in my two years as a bounty hunter),

A music room complete with every instruments known to man (I spend at least three hours their every time I'm here)

An art room (that room is my pride and enjoy)

An entertainment room (I have every television, radio and stereo created by man, and not to mention a killer sound system)

An enormous game room (I'm nine for Christ sakes, I deserve some childish leisure)

A mini museum (I love artifacts and jewels, and my collection of both is very extensive)

A music recording room (What, I can't resist)

A green house and a farm (I grow my own food, okay)

My own laboratory (Mechanical, chemical, and digital….And those three count as one room)

A ballroom (An entire room made out of crystals! What, I discovered a crystal mine when I was planning the design of my mansion, and I am a very extensive man)

A world-class kitchen (I'm a freaking master chef! Taste my food if you don't believe me)

A tailoring room (I make my own clothes)

And lastly, my very own filming studio (Again, I'm nine, I can do anything childish)

Also, my mansion boasts at least ten bedrooms and a very beautiful garden complete with a diamond fountain.

Oh yeah, I also have a sauna, a hot spring, a swimming pool, and a Jacuzzi…

I also have a collection of wine…and don't get me started about the security system of my mansion…trust me, I can rant on and on for more than an hour to describe how awesome the security of my mansion

I NEED SOMETHING TO DISTRACT ME FROM MY EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES… DON'T JUDGE ME….

I shook my head as I open the front door of my mansion. The front door is made out of pure silver mineral, AGAIN, DON'T JUDGE ME. I entered the mansion and I smiled when I look at one of the many corridors of my house. The corridor was filled with many flowers (different variety) and painting (some painted by skilled artist I came across in the past and some made by me). I would normally smile in pride at my home before walking towards the musicale room but today It feels off as If I am missing something, call me paranoid but in my line of work when something feels off then It most definitely is off and you should be getting for the mother of all fuck ups.

 **Scene change general POV.**

Inside a limousine, a short, elderly woman with a hunched body, arms folded in front of her body, and visible wrinkles. Her hair is a light shade of purple, tied into two large buns. Her slanted eyes are closed, much like squinting, her attire consists of a loose shirt, which has a short but relatively rounded collar, and a pair of pants, each patterned with a matching floral print and with light-colored cuffs. While her clothing may seem simple when worn by this person it will ooze sofistication and class. This person is none other than Usagi the empressé of Japan and the emperor's second wife.

"I love it when a plan comes together." The Empress whispered under her breath as she went home after having gotten an incredible acquisition in the form of a young man, Orimura Ichika.

The Empress could not help but chuckle mirthlessly at the thought of her plans that she concocted in her mind, plans that will take a decade to come to fruition.

To explain the Empress' plan, let us elaborate the five generations of magic of the great Nation of Japan.

The First Generation was the generation of trials and errors as magic was not yet prominent or well develop, far from today's generation. In the first generation, Magicians were labeled as psychics or espers as the most basic magic today were considered the highest magic possible during the First generation. Magicians were hidden from public, trained in secret, enhance if necessary, experimented when required, and disposed off if defective.

Japan also started breeding magicians via having exceptional magicians impregnate at least two to five women.

The result of the first generation proved to be the stepping stone for the greatness of the next generation of Magicians, the second generation.

The Era of Magicians started the same time Japan's Second Generation of Magic began.

The Second Generation focuses on the development and the categorization of magic as the development of different magic combats and the classification of the different types of magic. This generation utilizes ancient magic, with modern magic still an ongoing theory.

Japan's second generation was arguably the strongest era. The magicians produce during the second generation were the best magicians that the country had ever produced even to this day. The two most prominent magicians of the second generation were Orimura Ichigo, and the current Emperor of Japan, Ryuuya. The two of them alone were, and still are, the equivalent of an entire country's military might.

Japan became a superpower, the strongest nation in Asia during this generation as both Ichigo and Ryuuya led Japan to greatness. They paved an ocean of blood to engrave the military might of Japan to the world.

The Third Generation focuses on the transition from using talismans and staffs to using CADs. This generation is what started the fusion of technology and magic. This generation marks the dawn of magic being enhance and strengthen with technology. In this generation, skills were discovered, developed, proven, and practiced to the point that psion count doesn't anymore equate to an elite magician.

In this generation, the world wide standardization ranking magicians was developed, proven, and then executed.

Japan's third generation magicians were not as strong as the second generation, but they were more skillful compare to the last generation. The two most prominent magicians in this generation were Ayanami Isane, now known as Orimura Isane, and popularly known as Isane the Devil, and lastly, the late great Shirayuki, the White Pearl. These two magicians have very different styles and magic, and they also loathed each other (secretly, every girl hates the other), but they were the best in their generation, and they also equaled the Two Dragons in terms of Combat Prowess, surpassing them in skill but they were inferior in terms of power.

The Fourth Generation is different from the past three generations for this generation focuses more on the development of technology in support of magic. The difference in this generation when compare to the last three generations, especially the third, is the utilization of technology in magic.

In the previous generation, more specifically the third generation, the technology supports the magician. Technology enhances the skills of the magician.

In this generation, it's backwards. The Magician supports the technology. Skills that the magician should have can be covered and/or compensate with a high-end CAD, in other words, technology substitutes crucial skills of a magician, a skill that the magician should have and could use even without the help of technology.

Although the development of Magic skills took a decline in this generation, this generation compensate with the advancement of technology related to Magic.

In this generation, a battle can be determined at how advanced or how well tuned a CAD is.

Japan's fourth generation did not produce any magicians that can surpass the great magicians produced in the two previous generations, but this generation did produce a number of exceptional magicians. Zangetsu, the Heaven Chain; Chifuyu, the Demonic Ice Queen; Kurazakura, the Untouchable Queen; Shiroshiki, the White Storm; Doctor Jackal, Vladilena; Zephyrs, the Universal Shooter; 'Magneto' Schwarzer; the Killer Rabbit, Tabane; Quick Draw, Raphael; ShenLong, the Elemental Fist to name a few.

The Empress considered the fourth generation a failure. True, the fourth generation produced a lot of exception and great magicians compare to the previous generations, but none of them were able to surpass the greats that the previous generations produce. Also, average in the pass two generations are considered elite in the fourth generation.

A generation can only be considered great if and only if it produces somebody that can surpass the best of the previous generation. As far as the Empress could tell, the ten strongest magicians in this generation cannot even touch Isane in combat. Zangetsu has the potential to fight Isane in an equal footing, but the Devil would triumph in that battle in the end.

Still, even though the Fourth Generation is a disappointment, it is still acceptable.

The Fourth Generation is about to end, and Japan's next production will belong to the Fifth Generation.

Basing it in her earliest observation, the Empress deduced that the Fourth Generation is disappointing but at least passable, the next generation would simply suck, no more no less.

It is common knowledge that War is evil, but War will always result to evolution do to man's determination to live, to triumph, to survive, to prove that they are better than the opposition, and of course conquest. Since the Second Generation, Japan has been at war and that resulted in the production of elite magicians.

War can bring out the best in any country, in anyone in particular.

Japan is the strongest country in Asia when it comes to military might because of its high quality magicians and high-end technology, and because of that, Japan did not suffer from World War Three and now even with the conflict still on going, Japan did not suffer from the Great Asian War, and that is a bad thing and a good thing.

It's a good thing because the children did not suffer or experience war.

It's a bad thing because the children that would define and lead Japan's next generation of Magicians were not aware or inform at how cruel the world is or the challenges that they will face in the future.

In the last three generations, the youths were aware that there is war going on outside the country and they were prepared to fight to protect their country. In the Fifth Generation, the majority of the youths were not aware that there is a conflict happening outside of their country.

In the previous generations, magicians were being nurtured at the age of four, with some being deployed in the battlefield at the age of six, five if they were talented enough. In the Fifth Generation, only noble clans would consider, even consider teaching their children about magic, much less how to use magic properly or how to fight with magic. Also, magicians are nurtured at age twelve, middle school, and that is just introduction, the proper training will start in high school

In the previous generations, the youth viewed magic as a tool that is use to protect the country, a tool that should be developed to the best of their ability. In the Fifth generation, the youth viewed magic as a trend, as something similar to a fashion stament, something that should be achieve so that your peers will refer to you as somebody 'cool'.

The very thought of the Fifth Generations of magicians was enough to give the Empress a nightmare.

The difference between the Empress and her husband is that the Emperor is determined to achieve peace; the Empress is determined to maintain the peace.

The Emperor will only see the present, the Empress sees the future.

And the future sucks!

It was supposed to be, but that change because of one boy. The existence of one boy can salvage the Fifth Generation if guided correctly.

The name of that boy is Orimura Ichika.

To understand his significance, we need to elaborate more on his mother, Orimura Isane.

Orimura Isane, formerly known as Ayanami Isane, popularly known as Isane the Devil, was trained by the Second Empress, and she was proud of Isane and it filled her with pride at how strong and skilled Isane became under her tutelage.

Isane is everything a soldier should be; she is the epitome of the ideal warrior. Strong, powerful, cunning, and quick witted, a combat genius among warriors, resourceful, a natural tactician and strategist, to name a few of her attributes as a soldier. She has everything a warrior should have to be great in spades.

Orimura Isane is the greatest soldier Japan had ever produced in its long history.

But regardless of everything, she has one glaring fault.

Orimura Isane does not have morals, or ethics, or a conscience, or a heart. She is incapable of feeling compassion or mercy, whether they be allies or enemies, she will utterly annihilate them.

In words that can be easily understood, she's evil, pure demonic evil compress in the body of a very beautiful woman.

Still, Isane could and would respect her enemies, but that doesn't actually help her enemies because she would still kill them in the most brutal way possible.

Isane is unpredictable, she would follow orders but she would follow it her way. Nobody can accuse her of insubordination or have her court martial because she is the best at what she does. Isane is trouble, but she is a person that is better as an ally than an enemy.

That's the reason why her actions are tolerated, regardless of how twisted they are.

There is only one sure way to control Isane, and that is to provide her with wars and battles to fight. Isane thrive in wars and enjoys battles. Provide her with wars and battles, she would comply.

Isane is married to Orimura Kurei, which made her part of the Orimura Family. Now, this marriage is purely for convenient, no more, no less. There is no love between Kurei and Isane, and the only reason they have sex is to produce a child that has the ability to wield magic, which is their responsibility as magicians. Truth be told, Isane would have preferred going to war than have sex, and she had a number of one nights stands in her days as a soldier in the Asian War, and Kurei can have any girl that he wants in a snap of a finger.

The Empress, being Isane's teacher, was curious about her children.

Isane and Kurei have three children together.

The Eldest was Chifuyu. Chifuyu is talented enough to be recognized as one of the strongest in her generation, second best in her generation in fact, and she also inherited Isane's signature magic, **Astral Projection**. Though Chifuyu is powerful in her own right and much more magically talented than Isane, Chifuyu is no match against Isane in a straight fight.

Isane is born for war; Chifuyu is not, that distinction alone is enough for the Empress to know that though she has the potential, she will never surpass Isane.

Their middle child was Madoka. Madoka baffled the Empress because she does not have the talent that her mother and sister has in combat. In terms of Magic, Madoka is promising; having inherited the Orimura family magic, but that is it. Setting aside her potential in magic, there is nothing noteworthy about her.

The fact that her trust can easily be gained by a few flattering words and the fact that she can't stomach death was also disheartening.

The youngest and Madoka's twin was Ichika, and the moment he was born, he had already gained the Empress' interest.

When Ichika was born, he did not cry, instead, he laughed like a psychopath. That alone was enough proof for him to be identified as Isane's son. Apparently, Isane was like that when she was born.

When Ichika and Madoka were toddlers, the person who always calmed Madoka down when she was crying was Ichika. Heaven knows Isane won't do anything to calm her daughter down.

Ichika's weird behavior as a toddler earned him the curiosity of the Empress.

The Empress watched Ichika's growth from that moment forward, and his growth baffled her because it was abnormal.

Ichika matured faster than anybody she knew. At age three, he was already capable of advance movement. Age four, his mind was developed enough for him to understand and construct structures. Ichika created his first gun at that age and he was able to construct traps that were so complex that it was enough to neutralize soldiers. At the age of four; Ichika was capable of fighting a fully grown soldier.

That amused Isane enough that it earned him the love of the devil.

As Ichika grew, the Empress and those who knew Isane wondered if he was truly Isane's son. Ichika was the opposite of Isane. Ichika was cultured, very cultured and aristocratic, loathed fighting, and loves his family like nobody else would. In the eyes of the Empress and those who knew his parents, Ichika was more of a parent to his siblings than both Isane and Kurei combine.

Isane did not give a damn about her daughters, and Kurei will not hesitate to marry off any of his daughters to the highest bidder if he was allowed, just to further his political career.

But still, Ichika is still the son of Isane and it showed, if reflected upon the weapons that he creates. The weapons that Ichika creates even in his young age were advance, high-end, and it was design to complement the skill of the user. The user cannot depend on the weapon, but if the user is good enough, the weapon will increase the user's already existing skill by a large margin.

The technology that Ichika develops is the technology that should have existed in the fourth generation, in the Empress' opinion.

Now, when Ichika turned seven, it became harder for the Empress to monitor his growth. At age seven, Ichika started disappearing, and when he disappears, he covers his tracks so well that he leaves no traces. It both impressed and annoyed the Empress.

The Empress did not consider this relevant but at that year, Sin made his first public appearance by attacking Orimura Kurei.

When Ichika was seven to nine, the Empress notice a change in his eyes that somewhat disturbed her. The Empress observed that Ichika was slowly developing the eyes of an experience warrior, which made no sense whatsoever.

Ichika is the opposite of Isane. He would rather cook a five star meal than learn how to fight. He also does not possess any magical talents; he never showed an iota of magic to anyone.

But Ichika's aura, his eyes, his ever growing power that seems to radiate from his body, it did not lie.

When the Empress looked at Ichika when he was seven to nine, she was seeing a soldier in the verge of becoming a warrior.

This year, the year that Ichika was nine years old, the Empress struck gold. Today, she discovered a person that looks similar to the eldest daughter of her late twin sister, her niece. White hair, blue eyes, similar facial features, the young, eight year old girl was like the carbon copy of her niece.

Curiosity overtaking her, she scanned the mind of the young girl, impress with the girl's mental defense before discreetly breaking it, which gave her access to her mind.

What she discovered in that girl's mind made her smile and giddy with joy.

That girl, the eight year old Setsura, gave the Empress Ichika's secret life in great detail, and she knew, right there and then, that she has Ichika.

 **(Flashback)**

"Ichika-sama, welcome home!" The eight year old Setsura greeted her brother enthusiastically as she bowed deeply at the sight of him.

Ichika smiled at this as he patted her head. "Come on Setsura, let's eat dinner. I'm hungry and I want to try this new recipe." Ichika said as he walked passed Setsura.

"Ichika-sama, should you be removing you outfit first?" Setsura asked childishly and Ichika chuckled at this as he turned around to face her.

"Point taken, you want to help me." Ichika offered with a mischievous smile as he found Setsura blushing very cute.

Setsura nodded slowly as she assisted her brother in removing his heavy coat and mask, blushing the whole time, while Ichika undo his gloves.

As Ichika undress, he suddenly blurted out a question. "So how was your day, Setsura?" Ichika asked curiously as he untied his shoes that was covered with blood.

"Nothing of interest, Ichika-sama. The Empress did visit the school."

That off handed statement froze Ichika on the spot as he suddenly stared at Setsura with a startled expression, which surprised the young girl.

"Setsura, did the Empress ever look at you during her visit?" Ichika answered nervously as he bit his thumb, causing it to bleed.

Setsura, unaware of her brother's nervousness, answered. "One time, and it was only a glancing look."

The look of fear then crossed Ichika's face as he spread his senses to encompasse the whole house.

Ichika let out a sigh at this as he shook his head. "We are going to be working on your mental defense in our next lesson." Ichika told her as he suddenly face the door and bowed deeply. "Milady, welcome to my humble home. Please make yourself comfortable."

Setsura was startled by her brother's actions, but realization dawned to her when the Empress of Japan entered the room, her hands clapping softly.

"I always knew you were special." The Empress stated before turning her attention to Setsura. "Hello dear child, I am your grandaunt as well as your step-grandmother."

 **(End of Flashback)**

The first meeting between the siblings and the Empress, the tension was high but it calmed down considerably when the Empress assured the two that she would keep their secret if Ichika would open his mind to her.

Ichika agreed, but told the Empress that he will defend all the secrets that his mind held but would give her full access to everything else. The Empress agreed before she delved into Ichika's mind.

The first thing she discovered was that Ichika's has a formidable mental defense, even better than most of the telepaths that she knew and trained. By her assumption, she deduced that only Isane or Kurazakura could break his mental barriers immediately.

The second thing and the most important thing that she discovered was that Ichika was the perfected version of Isane. Ichika, without being train, has the sum total of all of Isane's skills and talents and more, and he does not have the same weakness that his mother has. Granted, he has more weakness than his mother, but unlike his mother, Ichika can overcome his weaknesses easily.

The third and the most crucial thing that she discovered was that Ichika has a severe case of sister complex. The Empress would go so far and say that Ichika's sister complex is irreversible, but she guess that it was hereditary.

Unknown to the public, Ichigo cheated on his wife with his sister. They didn't have a child in the affair for his sister died in the end of World War 3.

Now, Ichika's sister complex was what delighted the Empress the most. Ichika and Isane is similar in many ways, their combat skills and how they use their magic is mirror image of each other and Ichika, unfortunately, inherited the things that made people consider his mother the devil, but at least it is control.

Now the most glaring difference between them was that Isane cannot be controlled, a person would have more luck winning the lottery seven times in a row than having that devil obey them. Even if you use her son, she will not bow down, and Ichika would escape and capture his captors before gift wrapping them for his mother to play with.

Ichika, on the other hand, can be controlled, and the key is his sisters, more specifically, Setsura.

The Empress realized something when she witnessed how Ichika treated his sisters. He loves them that fact is unquestionable, but the degree of love that he has for his sisters varies.

Madoka, Ichika loves her like an overbearing and protective brother.

Chifuyu, Ichika loves and admires her with an almost unhealthy manner.

Setsura, Ichika loves her more than he loves everything else. Ichika was already in love with her.

Currently, Ichika is still in denial, and still hadn't acknowledged her as his sister.

In his defense, he is nine years old.

After seeing everything she needed, the Empress instantly formulated a plan that started with one sentence:

"Setsura-chan, do you want to live with your mother side of the family?"

The Empress asked Setsura in an act to test the two.

There answers did not disappoint her.

"If Ichika-sama finds me as a burden, only then will I leave his side."

"Setsura is my responsibility, take her, my Empress, then I will strike you down."

Those two answers, those two statements alone were enough for the Empress to determine how devoted they are to each other.

Setsura, plain and simple, already acknowledge her love for his big brother, and would follow him to the ends of the earth, from hell and back. She will do anything for him; he just needed to give the word.

Ichika, though he was still fooling himself, would fight to the dead to keep her. Ichika, as he is right now, may not know this or deny this fact, but the reason why he took care of Setsura when her mother died wasn't because he felt an obligation to her well being, but because he wanted her to be his wife someday. From the moment he took her under his wing, he started training her to be his perfect and ideal wife.

Deep down, Setsura knew her brother's intentions and she did not disappoint him. She became the Goddess that Ichika desired her to be, the Goddess that he wanted to worship and have.

Hearing that answer, the Empress meticulously made plans for the two.

The disappointing Fifth Generation suddenly became less disappointing because of the two. Ichika and Setsura, for the Empress, could singlehandedly salvage the Fifth generation, they just needed to be guided accordingly.

Ichika and Setsura were the perfect pair of magicians that she had ever seen in her life.

Setsura was born to be a magician, a great one at that. Every gift, every talent that would guarantee a magician greatness, she possessed it, and because of Ichika guiding her, her talents and in born abilities did not recede but instead, it were developed to such monstrous level.

Ichika may not be as magically gifted as his half-sister, but he made do with what he had and became great with it.

Ichika, guiding him was easy. He was a bounty hunter and a patriot, like every good Orimura. He was already set in leading the next generation; he just needed to overcome his fear of his own power and get stronger. The Empress will arrange that by giving Ichika targets that would push him to his limits so that he can surpass it.

Setsura, this was a challenge for the Empress because it seems that the young girl was hesitant to learn anything that did not originate from her brother. Still, it was easily resolve as the Empress will give Ichika every resources he needs to further Setsura's lessons.

Ichika, truth be told, only has three definite weakness, his inability to perform any magic outside of his affinity, his fear of embracing his nature as a warrior, and the fact that he still hadn't had his first kill.

His first weakness should not even be considered a weakness. For starters, his Blood Magic can be use in so many ways that it made it irrelevant for Ichika to learn any other magic, and his regeneration made sure that he would be very difficult to kill. Take to account that because of Ichika's genius and curiosity, he made himself versatile by training to be an anti-mage, developing his own unique ninjutsu.

Suffice to say, his first weakness has long been overcome.

His second weakness, can easily be handled, just put Ichika in a difficult situation and make sure that Ichika has no other option but to kill his opponent.

His last weakness, now that's an all different can of worms.

Ichika, like his mother, is born for war. He is one of the rare beings that were created in order to fight in wars. He was born as natural warrior, and that scared Ichika more than anything else that he had ever faced or encountered. Ichika knew, deep down, that if he just embrace his true nature, then he would become a being that would surpass his mother as well as the two dragons in a short period of time, but that would also result in him abandoning his humanity, and that alone was enough for Ichika to shy away from his true potential.

Usagi would not have that, she can't have that, she couldn't afford to have that. Ichika's main weakness was psychological, something that she could fix if given the chance. Alas that is currently impossible. MAYBE in the future if all tails but for now she has a few plans to start Ichika's conditioning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: I.S Style.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own IS: Infinite Stratos OR Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei but I own this fiction and my own plot and techniques. All props go to fujin of shadows for writing the original story.**

 **Chapter 2:**

 **(Age 10) (Madoka).**

"So this is what being kidnap feels like." Ichika muttered to himself as both his twin and himself, together with Houki and her brother, hung upside down, their feet bind by shackles connected to the wall above. "I got to tell youl, I expected worsts." As a bounty hunter, he had seen things done to kidnapped victims enough to be scarred for life.

Of course, after seeing those things, Ichika made sure that those men are thrown to a prison and made sure that they rot in that prison. The prison was designed and built by him after all.

"I'm not laughing, Ichika." Madoka growled as she tried to loosen her shackles, but to no avail.

"Flesh vs. Steel, it doesn't take a genius to know who will win." Ichika muttered in annoyance before looking up. "The chains are made out of brass with a hint of silver, and reinforce with runes, meaning that foreigners are responsible for this. We Japanese use seals after all." Ichika muttered as I sway side to side.

"You can tell all that by just looking at the chains?" Houki inquired surprised.

"I can tell a lot of things by just looking at the material. I've been working with steel and minerals for the past five years after all." Ichika answered before glaring at the purple haired man beside me. "I blame you for this, you prick." Ichika told him in contempt, not liking the fact that his stupidity got Madoka into this mess.

"Stop rubbing it in, you brat." A person 18-years of age snarled at me. This person is a tall young man with shoulder-length wavy purple hair, and brown eyes. He wears a long-sleeved collared shirt with suspenders and dark pants. He has a long scar running vertically along the side of his left eye, which comes from a wound that he got as a child.

His name is Akatsubaki, the only son of the Shinonoo clan, and he is also prat….

"What we need to do…"

"What you need to do is shut up…" the bounty hunter told him with a grumble. "We wait for rescue to arrive, and just relax."

"Stop insulting my Oniisama…" Houki scolded The younger male, but he ignored her as he allowed his senses to spread as far as possible.

'Okay, I don't have my CAD with me, so I need to say the incantation.' thought Ichika. Most magicians in today's age depend too much in CAD's when casting spells. They have forgotten that the main purpose of CAD is to merely lessen the casting time of each spell by minutes or hours into seconds, thus they develop an assumption that a CAD is required to cast a spell…

What bullshit!

Before CAD, there were wands and staffs…and before that, there were incantations.

"Eye of the red moon, be my scout! Fly the skies, hunt for vermin! Give me the sight of thy enemies! Allow me to hunt them down! **Meiso shinkei (Meditative sensibility)** " Ichika whispered quietly as he felt his senses enhanced to the point that he could hear the heart beats of the people that kidnapped them from across the building and his nose was assaults by numerous smells.

 **Meiso shinkei (Meditative sensibility)** is a skill that enables the user to remove mental shackles through powerful self-suggestion, thereby allowing them to temporarily surpass the body's limits. A strong backlash will inevitably follow from using this skill. But Ichika's body has grown accustomed to It so he will be fine, he had other ways of telling where and how kidnappers there were but all of them would have allerted the other prisonniers into his magic and since he did not have his scrambler on they would have recognised the Orimura clan magic that he uses and that is not going to happen any time soon, so he was stuck with **Meiso shinkei (Meditative sensibility).**

"At least fifty," Ichika mumbled under his breath. "I could end them, but I don't want to be Sin at the moment."

"What are you blabbing about, brat?" Akatsubaki asked with an irritated tone, and Ichika merely glared at him.

"I'm amusing myself, as usual." the younger male retorted back. "Hey, any of you have your CADs with you at the moment." Being members of noble clans, they are required to have either bodyguards and/or CAD with us at all times because they are all eye candy for kidnappers.

Of course Ichika, having low magic abilities, always carries a handgun in exchange for a CAD. His favorite being is a Desert Eagle, a handgun made over 90 years ago, maintained and improve by himself.

There was a collective answer of no, and I groaned at this. "So we wait," Ichika commented, which earned him a blow from Akatsubaki, which earned him a glare from the Orimura.

"Don't talk like a coward."Akatsubaki all but yelled at the Orimura male.

"I'm not talking like a coward; I'm being practical you fool." Ichika hissed at him. "You guys don't have your CADs with you, my gun has been confiscated, and you guys can't cast a spell without your CADs. We have no choice but to wait." Technically, Ichika can get all of them out of here in a flash, but there would be a lot of questions if he just suddenly unveil my magic to everyone, and Ichika cannot risk Setsura like that, Ichika can never risk Setsura.

"You do know that nobody knows where we are." Madoka pointed out in a matter of fact tone.

"Mother knows where we are. Remember the CAD that you had me tuned last week, I installed a transmitter on your CAD that emits a traceable frequency within three thousand square miles when remove from your possession." Her brother stated with a mischievous smile. "That is enough for mother or for Chifuyu-nee to track us down."

At that information, Ichika's sister, his friend, and the annoying twat gave him strange looks, which Ichika answered by shrugging. "Contingency plans, never leave home without having Contingency plans." As a bounty hunter, he lived by those words.

Their conversation was cut short when several men entered the room. Ichika growled a bit as he watch them free Madoka, Houki, and the twat from their shackles, but left him hanging. He glared at them as he watched them dag my sister forcefully out of the room. "If my sister is harm, I will send you all to the Shinigami in pieces." the younger Orimura told them as a random man came in front of me and threw a punch right at him.

The child did not feel pain from that punch. He hab been through worse and his regeneration is still active with or without a CAD. The person who punch him then grabbed a handgun and level it on his head. Ichika smiled at this.

"If your bullet doesn't penetrate my head, then you're dead." the male Orimura told them while whispering " **tekkai (Iron mass)** " as a gunshot sound echoed in the room, and all Ichika saw after that is black.

 **Scene change.**

"I told you…" Ichika muttered as he stood over the man who shot him. He was bleeding from the head due to the bullet that Ichika shot through his skull. "….that you would be dead if your bullet did not blow my head off my shoulders." Ichika can regenerate any part of my body in a flash, with two exceptions being my internal organs and my head. An internal organ takes more than an hour to regenerate, and if my brain is destroy, then the bounty hunter is as good as dead. The bullet that was shot at him was weak, it wasn't even enough to penetrate hks skull, but it was enough for him to lose consciousness for about two minutes.

When he woke up, he freed myself from his shackles and escape the room where they are holding him captive, found the man who shot him, then he buried four bullets through his cranium.

"What a substandard handgun." Ichika muttered to himself as he threw the handgun to the ground in disgust. He then activated the medallion that he had on. The medallion that he is wearing was not his CAD, but an artifact that allows him to teleport some of his equipment stored in his mansion to his current location. "Target set, weapon no. 2357, teleport coordinates, N57, S24, E96, W12." Ichika exclaimed loudly as he heard several footsteps heading his way.

The medallion glowed bright before a beam of light erupted from the medallion. The beam of light then formed a red case before the beam subsided. Ichika opened the case, and saw the handguns that he made late last year: the casull and the Jackal.

The Casull is a semi-automatic magnum pistol, based on two pre-WW1 handgun designs by Colt: the M1903 and M1905 pistols (the early versions of the M1911). The gun weighs approximately 6 kg unloaded and has a magazine capacity of six .454 Casull cartridges. The overall design of the Casull is simple, using the Browning short recoil mechanism. Its most recognizable feature is its long slide, counteracting the weapon's heavy recoil with its weight. The barrel is 10 inches long and finished with titanium nitride which gives it a characteristic gold color. The gun fires custom-made explosive .454 Casull rounds, with the steel bullets bearing a core made from melted silver. They are used in a six round single-stack magazine.

The Jackal on the other hand is a massive pistol made by Ichika especially for himself, and the most powerful handheld weapon in the whole of Asia, equalled only by his mother's songstress. It has a length of 39cm (16 in), a weight of 16kg (35lbs), and a black gunmetal construction, and uses massive 13mm explosive rounds. Its unique design makes it seem as if it doesn't have a pistol slide; however, the entire upper assembly is the slide, and moves only a minimal distance compared to other guns', making it appear as if there is no pistol slide. The Jackal has its silver ejector port on the left side, implying that it is meant to be used in conjunction with the Casull (sending the shells to the left prevents them from obscuring the wielder's view). The Jackal fires a huge, armour-piercing, 13mm hollow point bullet. The rounds are jacketed with a "casing" of Macedonian silver and features an explosive tip containing a charge of mercury. However, the 13mm round's size limits the Jackal's magazine capacity to six rounds. The rounds use "Marvell's Chemical Cartridge N.N.A.9", and are suggested to be very short by the minimal movement of the Jackal's slide. This could be due to the cartridge being powerful enough to require only minimal propellant.

Both guns are too heavy for even grown adults to use but Ichika, with his extreme physical training can use them easily.

Seeing that the kidnappers, entered the room were he was Ichika quickly shot the lights making it completely dark in the room. At the same time the twenty or saw kidnappers opened fire on the teen emitting the entire clips of their uzis on him but with complete darkness and zero visibility in the room they couldn't be sure they got him.

"you think we got him?" asked a voice in the dark.

"Of course we did. We empyied all of our ammo on the brat." answered another

"dunno, this kid killed vodka, that's no easy feat, especially four bullets in the head guys" said a third voice.

"Shut the fuck up Gin, you were always a pussy, go check him now" said a fourth voice before they were all shut by a Hail of bullets that pierced their bodies. Ichika countered fire by shooting at them with his weapons. While he did not know where they are specifically he knows where they should be statistically, the rest is handled by his body through the use of Gun kata.

Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the clerics, in other words the church, has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element, and through using said data they created what is called Gun kata. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. In short, the focus of the style is simply to shoot where the foe ought to be when they're aiming at you, and to not be where the foe ought to shoot. This style was used in the third world war, but fell to disuse a few years before the end of It because most masters of the craft are dead. Ichika reverse engeneered it when he once heard his mother talk about a rough gunslinger she killed at the height of the war, by the way he was five when that happened by the way, just saying. Currently counting Ichika only four masters of the Gun kata still remain. One in the Vatican as the head of the executors. One in Russia as head of equilibrium, the russian anti mage unit. And one is an Italian hitman.

As he exited the room he was in, Ichika heard footsteps coming from the door on the end of the corridor, his guess was proved to be correct when six armed guys opened the door but before they could even realise what was going on, their brains were shot, curtesy of the Casull. He didn't have time to admire his handywork as fifty or so bullet penetrated his head, or at least should have had he not bended his body backwards to the point that his torso was parallele to the ground. The five thugs didn't get a moment to be surprised by the manoeuver as their heads were blown up by the Jackal. Ichika raised his body just high enough so that he could see a bullet flying right in front of his nose before he returned fire an killed his attacker. As he was about to go to the next level of the three story compound they were in, Ichika felt queesy, It was his first kill after all, but before he became a shivering mess, Ichika whispered "I am nothing but steel, steel doesn't feel, steel doesn't fear, steel simply kills their opponent." This sentence made all of his emotions disappear. Just like **Meiso shinkei (Meditative sensibility),** this sentence was a powerful self suggestion that allowed Ichika to completely numb his emotions, after all he can't break down now, he still has a job to do.

 **Scene change.**

After killing nearly all the thugs in the building, Ichika reached the last floor, he opened the door and what he saw made his blood run cold in his veins.

"You know what, screw everything else." Ichika growled in anger as he witness several men stripping his twin sister's clothes off her body. He raised his gun up and blasted the head of everybody in the room. "I am going to slaughter you all." Ichika swore as he took his jacket off and put it over his half naked twin. The kidnappers tried to fight back but Ichika was simply too good, and by the time his mother showed up a lot of people died.

 **Scene change Ichika POV.**

You okay?" My mother asked with a rather worried tone that was very unlike her. She currently leading me to one of the medical vans that she brought.

"I think I'm going to throw up." I muttered to myself with a sickly tone. I was covered in blood, but none of which belongs to me, the smell made me sick as both the effects of **Meiso shinkei (Meditative sensibility)** and the second self suggestion faded off and the reality of my actions dawned upon me.

"That's to be expected, young master." Yamato, my mother's right hand man, commented as he walked side by side with my mother. Yamato looks to be in his late thirties, and he has rugged look matching his muscular build. His face was mark with dozens of scars. "I haven't seen that much carnage since Bangkok in 2069." Yamato commented and my mother nodded in agreement.

"Mother, can you wash the blood off me, I think I'm going to be sick from the smell." I begged my mother as I collapsed to my knees. Strange, so strange, I fought people stronger than those men before, but this is the first time I felt so exhausted after a fight. Why, I wonder, I didn't even use any of my spells, so why am I so exhausted.

"Of course, just give me a second, Ichi-kun." My mother whispered to me as she snapped her fingers, and instantly, all the blood in my person disappeared, together with the smell. Still, I feel heavy, very heavy.

"Can I go to sleep, I'm so tired?" I mumbled as I collapsed face first to the ground.

Why do I feel so heavy? **Meiso shinkei** 's effect were that severe before, I mean even when I created the bloody thing I didn't feel that tired.

"Of course you can." My mother told me as I saw her pull out the Songstress from the holster on her hip. "Yamato, anybody still alive in there."

"Two, the ring leader and some guy that hid under the corpses of his comrades when the young master started his massacre."

"Bring me to them, I will show them what would happen when they threaten my son!"

 **Scene change Ichika POV.**

After the kidnapping incident, my relationship with my twin sister change drastically.

Before the incident, we usually do everything together. We were the best of friends.

But after the incident, Madoka distance herself from me, which is strange. I did save her before anything could happen to her. I had half-expected her to thank me or to visit me in all those therapy sessions that my mother force me in (I've seen things that would give that therapist's nightmares nightmares, but I did not say a word. My bounty increase from half a million to 1.5 million since last year after all).

Still, it was strange; my close relationship with my twin disappeared overnight. Whenever I tried to talk to her, she just dismissed me and run off. Whenever we are in the same vicinity, she always makes it a point to be as far away as possible from me. Whenever we are at school, she tries her best to avoid me. Whenever we are at home, she's ignores me.

Houki is also doing that, but I tend to not care. She's my friend, if I lost her, it is okay.

My sister, on the other hand, is a different story.

I was confused, why she was acting like that, and I want some answer from her. I need some answers from her.

It took me roughly a month, but I finally cornered her for a conversation.

A conversation that I soon regretted in having.

"Okay, what's up?" I asked Madoka as I stood in front of her. The two of us were currently in one of the abandon corridors of the Orimura compound, and this time, Madoka will not leave until I get a straight answer from her.

"I'm sorry, but the elders are reacquiring my presence." Madoka excused herself, not even looking at me in the eyes. Before she move pass me, I block her path.

"Not today, Grandfather is currently occupying there attention." I should know, I've kind of, discretely, gave Grandfather some proof about some of the elders dirty dealings.

A lot of scumbags have been entering Japan in the past couple of months, and most of those scumbags are criminals with bounties amounting into seven digit bounty, and most of those seven-digit bounties are dangerous fighters and magicians. On the bright side, my house had gotten a lot of additions, and I am now restoring a Volvo C70 Convertible.

Yes, I need a life but we had already establish that when I was nine years old.

"I am going to hang out with Houki."

"The entire Shinonono family is in Hokkaido for two days and two nights." I informed her before letting out of sigh. "Why are you avoiding me?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"I don't know what you're talking about."Madoka denied, and I almost glare at her but relented.

"We haven't had our weekly stargazing together." I pointed out bluntly.

"I'm not a child anymore; I don't need to stare at the stars every week." She stated, and I instantly narrowed my eyes at that statement.

She was lying. One true thing about Madoka is that she loves stargazing, and we usually spend one night every week to just gaze at the night skies and spend some time catching up with each other.

For the past two months, we barely spoke with each other.

"Okay, since that kidnapping incident, you barely look at me, you barely spoke to me, you haven't even look at me in the eye for the past two months." I told her with a slightly forceful tone. "I want to know why, you owe me that much."

There's a thick silence between us as I finish saying those words, and my instincts scream at me to leave, but I stayed firm…

A decision that I soon regretted.

"You're becoming like mother." Madoka spoke coolly and I was taken aback by this.

One thing I hate about being a member of a Prominent and High ranking clan is that reputation is valued over family. It is not strange for a clan to marry off some of their daughters or sons to some random spouses just to increase their standings in society, or to get a few yens in their pockets.

Because of this fact, close family bonds are rare within any clans in the country. That's one of the reasons why I tried so hard to keep both my sisters happy. My greatest wish is to have a loving family, something that was denied from me because of the family that I was born in.

My father's only interacts with us if it involves business, politics, or how we could help raise the reputation of the family.

My mother is a bit strange with regards to the family. Unlike my father and most of her friends, my mother was not a noble; she was born a commoner, a very powerful commoner. She was so powerful in fact that she had attracted the attention of every noble clan in the country, but she choose to join the Orimura clan do to the military background of the family, and thus, she was married to my father, the only son of the Orimura clan at that time, as a proof of her allegiance to the clan.

My mother, to make a long and unknown story short, is not too fond with her daughters, but she adores me. She treats Chifuyu-nee as her subordinate, and continually belittles Madoka, but for some strange reason, Mother adores me and continually spoils me.

Chifuyu-nee and Madoka, they tolerate each other, enough said.

My grandfather and I are the once who tries to keep everyone as a family, and it was difficult to do at times.

Now, because of my mother's relationship with my twin, Madoka had developed a genuine dislike for our mother.

"Wait a minute, how am I becoming like mother, I'm nothing like her!" I told her firmly.

"Then why did you kill those men?"

"They were threatening you!" I answered truthfully. "Do you have any idea what they were about to do to you?" I asked her bluntly while inwardly shuddering at the thought. As a bounty hunter, I have seen things that no other people should see, especially kids my age.

I know who send those men after us and I know what they are capable off. I know what they were planning to do to us, they were going to kill me (Fail!), and they were going to break Madoka by either torturing her or raping her (I made sure that failed!).

I can tell grandfather who sent those men, but I can't because I don't have any evidence to back my claim. Sometimes, it sucks to be ten.

"That doesn't explain why you killed them. You could have knocked them out." Madoka debated and I frown at this. WHAT!? Is she listening to what she was saying?

"It was you or them; it's a no brainer who I would choose." I told her with a blunt tone as I tried to look at my twin's eyes to see what she was thinking deep inside. Why is she so bothered of me killing? For Kami's sake, I killed in order to protect her, and that act is the only thing I haven't done for Chifuyu-nee and Setsura.

"Will you not use me to excuse what you did!" Madoka snapped at me before shoving me away. "I saw you, with one of your guns, firing at those poor men, killing them in cold blood! Did you even stop and consider about their family?" Did those men did something to my sister, because she is talking nonsense.

"Let me get this straight, they kidnapped you, me, Houki, and that twat, one of them shot me with a gun, and then they dragged you to a room, strapped you to a freaking table, strip you off your clothing, and was about to do something to you that I do not want to even imagine, and you think I was THE ONE who was wrong because I killed them to save you, Houki, and that twat." I ranted as I tried to control the irritation of my voice.

"And do you even think that I enjoyed killing those men, then think again. I killed over forty men back then, and their blood will be forever in my hands. I have to live for the rest of my life knowing that I turned my back on my beliefs to save your life." I didn't even do that for Setsura, and I didn't even kill most of the scumbags that I came across in my career as a bounty hunter, and most of those scumbags deserved death, but I relented and merely threw them to a jail that is basically impossible to escape.

I designed and made the prison after all.

Yes, we had already established that I have a lot of free time and I need something to preoccupy myself. STOP JUDGING ME.

"You could have beaten them without killing them. You're skilled enough with a gun to do that." True, I am skilled enough with a gun to take out a C-class magician with nothing but a gun without killing the magician. But, back then, I was not thinking to subdue my enemies; I was thinking to eliminate them.

I took a deep breath to calm myself as I looked at her solemnly. "Okay, why are you so upset? We have seen mother torture and kill before…" Philippines, 2087, my mother and her unit tortured and killed over 1000 rebels that were threatening to invade Japan. It was not a pretty sight, I should know, I was there to witness how brutal and merciless my mother could be. "…and you weren't this affected much…" I had to sleep next to Madoka for a month to make sure that she didn't have any nightmares.

"What is the difference between me and mother killing?" The main difference would be that I kill them outright, and not make them beg for their deaths. Even Madoka knows that.

"I don't know! But I know one thing, you enjoy killing those men as much as mother enjoy killing!"

Okay, WHAT!?

"Are you listening to what's coming out of your mouth? Mother enjoys killing because she grew up in a freaking warzone, and she's a natural born sadist..." I love you mother, but that's the truth. "….if I'm anything like mother, then I would have already shot those elders who always make it a point to make my life as difficult as possible."

"Then you're a bloody hypocrite." Madoka all but shouted while narrowing her eyes. "I saw you back then while you were killing those men. Your eyes were like mother's. You are just like her, you're just a murderer."

As she said those words, I tried my best to hide the pain that I felt and focus merely on her eyes. What I saw was shocking.

"You're jealous of me?" I asked her in a slight taken back tone.

"What!?"

"You were always too competitive, ever since you were five years old. Ever since people started comparing you to Chifuyu-nee, you always see everything as a competition." Thank Kami-sama that nobody can touch Setsura in terms of magic. She has no competition, and that made her special because even without a constant challenge, her growth rate is still tremendous.

"Are you mad at me because I killed those men, or because I showed you that I don't need magic to actually beat somebody stronger than me?" I asked in curiosity as I waited for Madoka to react.

 ***SLAP***

My head jerked slightly after the slap that my twin gave me.

But that was all the answer I needed.

 **Scene change: Ichika POV.**

One month after that conversation, Madoka and I haven't spoken with each other. I always tried to have a brother-sister conversation with her, but she just ignores me, something that hurt me deeply.

I hid my pain very well when I am within the Orimura family compound, but when I'm out hunting and training Setsura, well, that's a different story.

For the past months that followed that conversation, whenever I hunt, I became more brutal, merciless even, and I even took several pages from my mother's playbook. I have started dismembering some of my targets, I mentally and emotionally tortured some of my targets to an extent that some of them committed suicide, and the less said on how brutal I became in combat the better.

I felt disgusted with myself knowing that I am proving my twin right. Deep inside me is the same monster that mother has within her. I am just like her, a monster in human skin.

The thing I regretted the most about my grieving too much about my lost relationship with Madoka is the fact that my training sessions with Setsura became harsher and harder. I became strict when it comes to training and raising Setsura. Every training session I had with Setsura in the last month always started with me yelling at her and always ended with her so exhausted that she could barely move. She was also always covered with bruises after every particular training session.

You have no idea how much I hated myself after bruising her skin like that.

Also, after the fight I had with Madoka, I have stopped painting portraits and creating musical compositions. It just didn't feel right at the moment. Every time I paint portraits or write a musical composition, I always felt joyful before and after I finish creating my master pieces, but currently, I don't feel the emotions that I usually feel when doing my hobbies.

It suck that I was affected so much by my sister practically denouncing me.

And I still cannot believe that she would denounce me that quickly because I showed a miniscule of my abilities to save her life.

But, most importantly, I hate myself because Setsura suffered because of my grief. In the three years of me taking care of her, I have grown to truly adore that girl. We were friends before, but now, after three years, the relationship that we have is akin to a father-daughter relationship. It pains me to see Setsura enduring my harshness and my grief with a smile on her face like she wasn't pained by my actions. She deserves better.

She deserves better than me.

 **Scene change: general POV.**

Ichika was wearing his civilian clothes for today, he decided to make It up to Setsura today. After school, Seirin elementary school one of the best interest the country, he was going to take her shopping then he was taking her out for dinner, and finally they were going to see the openings night of a remake of her favorite opera: Don Giovanni at the emperial theater, he had managed to procure two balcony tickets for today.

As he arrived at the place Setsura always waits for him to pick her up from, he didn't find her waiting. It was 16:10 so he was late, she should be waiting for him here. Suddenly he felt something very, very wrong was going to happen so as usual, he cheked it out. He took out his cell phone and used a special tracking app that he installed in both of Setsura's phone and CAD. When both turned out to be dead ends, In other words he found both the bloody things in her school in a trash can. He decided that a change of methods was necessary. He dialed a number on his phone and waited, thirty seconds later, the person that Ichika called started a video chat with Ichika.

The man was old, roughly seventy-two or seventy three, and he looks very fragile and thin. He was wearing a kimono, with his right arm covered in bandages and hidden in his kimono. He stands at the height of five foot, five inches. He has light grey hair which was baggy, and long, grey beard which looks to be well trimmed. His right eye was covered by a white bandage, and his face had an X shaped scar on It. The man was Hanzo Gendo the human cyborg, a former general turned traitor of Japan, but to Ichika Hanzo was a mentor, the man was the best hacker on god's green earth for the last five decades, and one of Japan's greatest resource during World War Three. If it were any normal occasion Ichika would have had some small talk before stayting his business but now Ichika just didn't have the time, a sentiment that Hanzo probably detected since he asked the following question

"Ichika kun, what can I do for you?" the hacker said and Ichika simply answered

"Hanzo san, I want a five mile scan of all the security cameras around Seirin elementary school, and I want the footage of the last 8 hours sent to me." the former general simply nodded and said

"of course I will send It to you in 15 minutes." and just like that Hanzo Gendo ended the chat. Another feature of Gendo is that he wasn't overly curious, the man understood the value of secrets, having quite a few himself.

During that time Ichika went to a nearby cyber café and cheked into a booth that he payed for the next five hours. Once inside, he closed the door and used fuinjutsu to make the room completely unconspecuous to others, he used his medallion to summon his Sin costume and his computer.

Once the file with all the footage arrived, Ichika started seeing all the footage, and around 15:00 hours Ichika spotted a strange individual that came out of an office supply truck. Ichika knew the company that the school sealed with so he knew all the employees of said company, also Ichika was informed of any and all new imployees that were hired or fired since he bribed the secretary of the president of the local branch. Another thing that marked the man was the looks in his eyes. They were not the eyes of a simple delivery man but they were the eyes of a killer.

Since he doubted that people knew he was Sin, and even if they knew they wouldn't be able to tell his relationship with Setsura. Ichika was one hundred percent sure that Setsura was the target all along. The only reason she would be targetted would be because of her mother. So sighing Ichika opened a file that contained a liste of the people that the Princess Shirayuki-hime pissed off in her life. Finding a match to the picture of the man that Ichika suspected of taking Setsura. Ichika's eyes widened when he read his file. He needed to hurry up and find Setsura.

Around two years ago, the Japanese police decided to use the CCTV cameras to track people better in their cars. So they decided to use an algorithm that automatically took pictures of the cars registration plates and used said Images to create a route of the vehicle, they called it project sentinel. They asked Tabane to make it but the rabbit was too busy or not enough interested to do It so she sub contracted Ichika for It. Paid him in full too, what no one knows Is that Ichika had built In a backdoor that allowed him to use said algorithm, an old habit instilled by Hanzo, one that Ichika was thankful for by the way. Finding the location that he wanted, Ichika quickly wore his Sin outfit and left the café, discretely of course, all the while hoping that Setsura is alive.

 **Scene change: general POV.**

Setsura woke feeling a pounding headache, she tried to remember what happened. So she was at the school, It was about the time for the final bell, she went to the toilet and then... nothing just darkness. The young girl looked around herself and saw where she was, she was in some sort of cage in a dark and damp place. A sewer if what she observed was right, her musings were cut short when a voice came from the shadows outside the cage

"you know, you look just like her." and the person stepped out of the shadows, the man, as he was a man by both his voice and appearance was very tall and muscular. He had a distinctive shark-like appearance, complete with pale, blue-grey skin. He also has small, round, white eyes, gill-like facial markings under his eyes, and sharp triangular teeth. He also styled his blue hair in the form of a shark fin. The man was wearing a pitch black suit with a black shirt and white tie underneath. Setsura, even in the face of his intimidating appearance, forced herself to be calm, or at least appear calm judging by the fact that she was shaking like a leaf.

"just like who?" she asked her captor who just shuckled before answering her

"Like your mother, Shirayuki-hime."

"please listen to me I am not who you think I am..." stared Setsura before she was interrupted by the man

"Don't lie to me, I didn't insult your intelligence by being honest with you so don't insult mine by lying to me!" roared her captor making the girl shut up in fright. "Do you think I wouldn't recognised the similar magic signature that you two share, or Perhaps that I wouldn't sheck your DNA before grabbing you.?!" he continued making Setsura's eyes widen before she just sighed in resignation, her onii sama had told her that veteran magicians usually developped the ability to sense magic aura and that they can usually tell family ties using the same method, this man also went out of his way to verify his findings making lying to him useless and in this case, judging by his rsponse, ill advised, so she settled for the only thing she can in this situation, fish for information.

"Who are you?" asked Setsura, making the man smile in amusement.

"So fishing for Intel huh? Very well my name is Kisame, and I am a member of the underwater combat battalion. Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Well the why is very simple, your mother made the battalion, over 1000 subjects went into the project, five survived the enhancements and the training. When the project was shut down, all the survivors where put to death so that the information wouldn't be leaked, I mean can you Imagine It? The next in line for the throne of this country mixed up with human experimentation, so to prevent the scandal all the subjects were gunned down, I am the only survivor." finished Kisame.

"So it's revenge, then why I am still alive? You could've killed any time now." she said causing Kisame to nod along her words before answering her.

"True, very true, but I am not into killing little defenseless kids, so I am leaving you fate up to your guardian." he said causing her face to lose color.

"What do you expect me to believe a green girl like you lived by herself for god knows how many years? Give me a break. So here Is the deal, when your guardian comes here him and I will fight to the death, the winner decides what to do with you." and as If waiting for this exact moment an explosion was heard causing Kisame to smile.

"What do you know? He is right on time said Kisame before putting his hand on the water causing five water sharks to swim from said appendage, the blue skinned man smiled before taking of the top clothing, revealing his muscular physic and the three gills on each shoulder. The man had a bloodthirsty grin as he sinked into the waters, getting him self ready for what could be the last fight of his life.

 **Scene change: general POV.**

Ichika just arrived at his destination, an old sewage treatment center. Judging by the file he read on his opponent, he figured it kinda made sense, with his magic speciality and all. Ichika left the self driven car he came and walked until he found a manhole, lifting the cover easily, Ichika decided to simply jump down. As soon as the ten year old made contact with the ground the ground exploded "a land mine" the child soldier thought, "probably a SB-33 judging by the blast " added the gunsmith in his mind. From the smoke Ichika came out unharmed due to reinforcing himself, another habit, this one instilled by the war, and he looked around and just walked away, this type of bombs doesn't really have on trained combat magicians. To even scratch him, they would need something with a little more kick to It than that.

As he walked away at the four corners of the little room he found himself, a small explosion occured, and trop the explosion countless metal beads appeared. Those metal beads sprang toward Ichika like bullets.

This machinery was constructed free from magic. Ichika didn't sense any scent of magic activation. Therefore, it must be machinery Kisame set up before. It is an anti-personnel mine called a Claymore, a cruel pre-set bomb. When each bomb explodes they will release, simultaneously, 700 or so steel balls with a diameter of only about one or two millimeters. These steel balls would radiate outwards in all directions in a fan formation, a terrifying weapon that people say is made to completely destroy a normal, aka non magical, infantry unit with one strike. When it explodes, one won't even have time to escape; the only thing the target at the center of the bombs can do is prepare to be beaten into a sieve.

Of course, provided that the target isn't a magician.

In the split of a second before 2800 steel balls reached Ichika, the spot he was standing on became enveloped by a silver semi-circle. The barrier was made from **[mirror magic]** and Ichika can only use a rudimentary version of It. But for something as benign as a claymore it should be more than enough.

It was this confidence that made Ichika almost miss It, but when each one of the 2800 steel balls hit the barrier they all glowed in a magical light before they each exploded. Individually each Explosion would have been ignored by Ichika but together even he would be fatally injured so Ichika chanelled Psions to his feet and disappeared in a burst of speed, that was a variation of the **shukuchi (land reduction technique)** that he called **Shunpo (Flash step).** Looking to the only other entrance of the room, Ichika simply said

"Are you done with the greeting yet or do I have to dodge some other gimmick." he asked mockingly

"Oh my, please excuse me, but when I saw who came for the little girl, I just had to see for myself if the rumors are true, and I have to say that I am beyond impressed with what I have seen."

"Where Is Setsura Kisame san and Is she allright?" he asked with a glare and all he got was a chuckle

"she Is fine, how long that last is on you though?" answered the shark themed man

"What Is that supposed to mean?" asked Ichika tensing

"It means that her lifespan is depending on the outcome of our little fight, I win and she follows you into the great beyond, you win and she gets to live for a while longer." said Kisame which made Ichika sigh before saying

"I already know the answer to that but I have to ask you anyway, will you give Setsura back?"

"Do you seriously expect me to say yes?" asked Kisame

"Nope, but I had to ask, just for a clear conscience" Ichika answered causing Kisame to howling in laughter

"you crack me up lad, guys like you and me will never have clear consciences unless we die" said the old male causing Ichika to ponder on It for an instant before summoning a simple black sword to his hand

"Ah the infamous **Geneiken (Illusion swords)** , I am honored Sin san now let me return the favor by showing you a little number I came up with **Mizu no ken (Water sword)** " and In a flash a puddle of water at Kisame's feet turned into a long katana made from water. That was a spell that all water users can use now but originally It was created by the man that Ichika was facing. As both swordsman faced each other Ichika was analyzing his opponent.

'All right opponent is tall but definetly slow and from observation of his fists he is right handed, from the grip and the stance that he has, I can safely deduce that he is an old hand at swordsmanship but he is no master, stance is relaxed but capable of instantly going to offense or defense so experienced. Usually I would try to test the waters but in this case that is inadvisable, so top speed It is.' concluded the Orimura not knowing that the shark man was also analyzing him

'Interesting, target is short but probably very muscular, also most definetly a speed type, not to say that he doesn't have any power moves, but he probably relies on his speed to get the job done. From observations target is also ambidexterous, stance relaxed but capable of both offense and defense, as expected the target is experienced. Natural grip of the sword seem to concurrence with the rumors that Sin is a swordmaster, but what is this? Sin san seems in a hurry that could be in my favor.' concluded Kisame.

'Advantages my speed, disadvantages his strength, Kisame is a water magician that is one of the top 20 world wide, prefers shark themed attacks, he is a member of the underwater combat battalion so underwater combat is not advised.' finished Ichika in his head before preparing himself for the clash that is to come.

'Advantages my strength, disadvantages his speed, target uses some sort of sword magic and gun magic to take down opponents, capable of fighting at all ranges but prefers classe range combat were he can use his sword magic to finish his opponent. Another advantage is target's concern for hostage so he is likely to make mistake due to being in a hurry. Final advantage is misinformation. Advised tactic: close range combat or underwater combat.' finished Kismae in his mind before both himself and Ichika disappeared and appeared at opposite sites of were they were in the beginning.

Blood started flowing and Kisame grinned before looking at his opponent and said

"Well I'll be damned, who would have thought that you would be Sin of all people as he realised who his opponent is, indeed both the mask and the glasses were lying by Ichika's feet, cut by Kisame's one attack, meanwhile Ichika was replaying the clash in his head

'What the fuck happened I am sur I hit him thrice but each time I did It felt like my sword lost all momentum, I felt magic but not one I know so what did he do?" he asked in his head before turning towards his opponent who just stared at him in confusion

"Orimura Ichika, son of Orimura Isane and Orimura Kurei, what are you doing taking care or your father's bastard child I wonder? Anyway It seems that first blood is mine." he said before looking at Ichika in confusion seeing no wound "it seems you have some sort of regeneration, oh well more funny for me I guess." he said before suddenly Finding himself impalled by Ichika's Sword.

" **Kyosha (Deathly Wheel)** " whispered Ichika, but to his confusion the hit felt light, too light, he then heard a voice behind him

" **Shukuchi (Land reduction technique)** a basic technique that all soldiers in my time could use" indeed Kisame was standing right behind, Ichika jumped backwards while maintaining eye contact with Kisame, the older male just continued with his monologue "but my personal take on the technique allows me by adding a few additional steps to create a clone of myself, I call It **zanzo (afterimage)** " he said before found himself once more stabbed by Ichika's **Kyosha (Deathly Wheel)** , the Kisame disappeared showing that he was just an afterimage, but this time Ichika was ready as the moment Kisame appeared he found himself being cut down by the Orimura, and just like the first time the Kisame faded as well. Ichika was about to move when he found himself surrounded by four Kisames.

"Asumptions, a dangerous thing they are, they usually get you killed you know. Like the assumption that I can only make one clone, when In fact my limit is four at a time." and like that the four Kisames each stabbed Ichika but Ichika just banished showing that he was an after image as well. Ichika appeared oustide the Kisame barricade and simply said

"I couldn't agree more, like the assumption that only you can create after images." and like that Ichika took both his Casull and Jackal and opened fire, two bullets dispelled the other after images while the last ten impacted on target. But to Ichika's suprise the bullets just stopped the moment they touched Kisame and fell uselessly on the ground. The sharkman just grinned before casting an unknown spell and suddenly Ichika lost his footing, just as Kisame slashes with his sword, Ichika managed to dodge the attack but his right arm wasn't so lucky and the limb fell uselessly by his feet.

The older male just grinned before saying

"And here you lost a limb..." But before saying anything else, a flash of light interrupted him and when the light ceased, Ichika was with a full set of limbs once more "What the hell? That ain't faire!" the sharkman screamed. Ichika on the other hand just looked at his limb appatethically before saying

"This is…!" There was no doubt. Ichika was sure that his hunch was the truth, and asked Kisame who was standing across from him.

"You made the ground lose friction, didn't you…!?"

"What a fast realization. That's quite correct."

Kisame answered as he slowly walked up to Ichika.

"Blocking, slashing, shooting. In this world, the effect of every type of power is greatly related to friction. No matter how fast the bullet, if its speed is stolen by friction at the point of impact, it would have no penetration and fall uselessly at its target's feet. And if an attack was altered by the same power, a blade can be made to unparalleled sharpness that cuts through any material without resistance."

A sword of excellent offense. A shield of divine defense. It was power that manipulated friction, which makes up the foundation of every kind of force.

"That is the ability that I, Kisame, possess."

"That's quite the ability you got there buddy, how come no one knows about It?"

"Well Ichika san, the answer is quite simple, I killed all those who ever faced this ability." answered Kisame as If talking about the weather.

"It seems you are quite arrogant, Kismae san to explain your ability like that to me"

"Hoh? And how am I being arrogant? Since the beginning of this fight I have been treating you as an equal Ichika san?"

"The very fact that you treat me as your equal is arrogance in itself Kisame san." Ichika said while flexing his aura.

"Hoh? It seems that you are quite the arrogant man Ichika san" answered Kisame while doing the same "But, how will you attack me?"

"Simple you magic has two major weaknesses." said Ichika while showing his ornemental pistols, Kisame just activated his magic, but he was surprised when instead of feeling nothing, he felt crippling damage in his shoulder, he looked and saw a hole in it.

"Weakness number one: energy attacks, you can't block those." Kisame snarled before ignoring his injury and attacked Ichika with his sword, he expected Ichika to try and block but Ichika simply disappeared and appeared behind him. And just like that Kisame had towards gashes on his back, curtesy of the two blades that Ichika had in his hands.

"Weakness number two: Speed, this magic that you use is incredibly complexe, so you definetly can't use It for both offense and defense at the same time." and like that Ichika disappeared only to appear right in front of Kisame with a punch that impacter on his opponent's face but like all the others, this attack did nothing to faze Kisame, the shark like man was about to gloat when he felt an incredible pain in his stomach, looking down he saw a sword in his guts, snarling, he pushed Ichika away than yelled " **Mizu Kamikiri (Rising Water Slicer)** " and sent two fast jets of water running through the ground that were powerful enough to slice through solid rock. However, Ichika avoided them by putting his body between and in parallele to both jets, this plan worked until both jets exploded with Ichika stuck between them, the pain he felt was excrutiating and It was only his pain tolerance that made him not black out. When he came out of the steam, his opponent was nowhere to be seen. Supressing a growl Ichika left the room he was in and started walking until he reached a drowned corridor, having cheked the schematics of the place before he realised what happened.

'The son of a bitch flooded the whole place to give himself an advantage here, no matter that was still within predictions, even with that new magic he uses, I still can win this. However what was that at the end, It looked like **Hadan (Rupture)** but I am sure It was not heat magic, It was water magic.' he thought before diving into the waters, a decision that he regretted almost instantly, since five water sharks tried to rip him into shreds, he simply blasted them with his **kudou dan (hollow bullet)** , after that he simply swam until he reached an opening, when he saw his opponent, the man was standing on top of the water with two scars, one near his shoulder the other in his guts. He looked at his opponent curiously, the man seemed to read his mind was he said

"the best medical magicians are those that use water magic, while I am now expert, I can stitch my self just fine." Ichika nodded before saying

"I see, now tell where IS she?!" roared Ichika. Kisame grinned but before he can answer a sound came from the wall

"Ichika sama" he looked at the source of the voice and his eyes softened when he saw his charge. Ichika smiled at his younger sibling and asked.

"Setsura, are you alright? The bad man didn't do anything to you?" he said ignoring Kisame's indignation at the 'bad man' comment. Setsura just shook her head but before She could answer, Ichika had to ducking under one of Kisame's swings. Jumping backwards, Ichika draws one of ornemental guns before firing a **kudou dan (hollow bullet)** at his opponent who dodged It. When Ichika landed on the water surface, Kisame caster a spell and the spot Ichika was in exploded in a steam explosion. Si arling Ichika didn't have enough time to avoid being impalled by six jets of water in his stomach, Kisame having casted the **Mizu no yari (Water javelin)** , decided to finish things with his sword rushed Ichika and stabbed him the chest with It. Seeing his handywork and ignoring the female in this place's screamed the the shark like man grinned and said

"And that is that, though I have to ask: how are you standing on the water? I know how I am doing It by using water magic, how about you?"

"Hah... Hah... ninjutsu... How... Hah... did you cause... an explosion?... Hah... That wasn't **Hadan (Rupture)**." said Ichika sounding at the end of his rope.

"Hoh, impressive, you managed to tell my spell appartement from **Hadan (Rupture)**." started Kisame while putting his hand on Ichika's forehead "as a final mercy I will tell you, water magicians are thought to draw water from steam and vapors around them, at least in my time they were, so that got me thinking: What If I did the opposite? What If instead of turning steam into water, I turned water into steam? So with the help of Shirayuki-hime, may she suffer in hell" said Kisame earning himself an amen from Ichika "the spell **Kyokiri Shikama (High Mist Death Scythe)** was created, a spell that causes a phreatic explosion by turning water or ice into vapor, which takes up more volume, resulting in an explosion." said Kisame proudly before looking at Ichika sadly

"And since the human body Is 70% water, you can guess what is next right. Orimura Ichika, you were without a doubt one of the strongest opponents I have ever faced, and I say it without shame that my victory over you was simply luck, I promise you that your sister's death will be swift and painless." the man said before activating his **Kyokiri Shikama (Secret technique: High Mist Death Scythe)** , but nothing happened, he looked down and saw Ichika staring at him, the blade of water in his chest simply returning to its original form before the bounty hunter launched a punch at the ex soldiers chest, Kisame quickly activated his magic and the attack landed harmlessly. He saw his opponent and said

"I don't know how you did It but that attack missed..." was all he managed to say before he was sent flying by an incredible impact in his chest, in mid air he felt another sending further towards the wall, and a third, then a fourth, this one sent him crushing into the wall, he was about to slide down when the last impact buried him one inch in the wall. The man was about to lose consciousness when he felt a single sword piercing each of his limbs, the pain brought him out of It. He definitely wished to have passed out because of the pain, another thing was the fact that he felt that most if not all of his internal organs were damaged, diagnosis: death in a few minutes since he didn't have the skills to patchwork himself up from that. All he had in his mind was

"What was that?"

"I punched five times in the same place delaying the impact of the other four punches, the one your magic nullified. This technique has a drawback though" said Ichika showing his limping right arm while trying to retake his breath, that was a close, as Kisame said It could have gone either way.

"What about your organs?"

"Karate breathing technique, I lifted my organs into my ribcage" Ichika lied since all attacks hit home, and he was feeling It.

"How did you survive **Kyokiri Shikama (Secret technique: High Mist Death Scythe)**?" Kisame asked the final question, at this Ichika glared his psions and Kisame saw a blue aura around Ichika.

" **[Contact type Gram Demolition]** , is an alternate form of Gram Demolition used by counter magicians. Unlike the usual Gram Demolition which functions like a cannonball, Contact-type Gram Demolition works like an armor composed of formless Psions, demolishing any magic that comes in contact with the user's body. Contact-Type Gram Demolition cannot protect the user from the purely physical effects of an enemy's attacks and thus it is not a true "armor". That is how I survived" said Ichika while turning around and limping away

So, I lost to a child. I never thought that would ever happen to someone of my caliber." said Kisame resigned to his fate.

Ichika on the other hand was thinking

'And how many enemies did that woman left for her daughter to fight. I hope nobody is as strong as this twat.'

Ichika was covered in his blood, for the first time, from head to toe as he stood in front of the man in his late forties. Ichika was breathing hard, exhaustion visible by the way he was standing, or barely standing considering my legs are shaking like hell. He was holding a black sword, a **[Geneiken(Illusion swords )]** he summoned.

The man in front of me was not as injured as me; in fact, the guy did not have a scratch on him. The man was relatively unharmed,but he was wheezing, and any doctor could tell you that the man was going to die, he was also crucified on a wall courtesy of four swords that Ichika used to pierce his hands and feet, which bounded him on a thick wall.

"I'll…" Ichika took several ragged breaths as he slowly turned his back on the man that he barely defeated. "…be…taking…her…now." Ichika was able to say as he willed his body to move.

"She's as good as dead, you know." came the voice of his defeated fow

Ichika ignored those words as he used every drop ofhis remaining energy to move towards the unconscious Setsura on the farthest corner of the room, the little girl having fainted when he was impalled. All the while Ichika repeatedly something in his mind

'If anything happens to her, I will embrace my inner monster, and butcher that man.'

"I wonder why a brat like you would bother to risk his life for a reject like her."

"She's my responsibility." Ichika stated weakly, not bothering to look at the man that he defeated.

"A child taking care of another child, how laughable." The man commented with a dry laugh. "Tell me, brat, how much did you gave up so that that girl could live a semi-ordinary life; your childhood, your beliefs, your morals, your innocence…."

"She's my responsibility." Ichika repeated as he limped towards the prone body of Setsura. His regeneration is taking its time to heal the damage done to his body. The final sword to the chest nicked his heart.

"You won't go this far if that was the case. You wouldn't have pushed your body to the breaking point for a girl that is just your responsibility." The man said with a smirk on his face. "I beat you within an inch of your life. I punctured every organ that you have. I cut off or blasted off every movable limb that you have. The only reason you're alive and have all of your limbs is because of that strange regeneration power that you have…"

"And yet, you were still able to beat me, for a girl that you should have abandoned a long time ago."

"She's my responsibility." Ichika repeated again as he knelt down to Setsura's unconscious body before picking her up and carrying her bridal style. He frowned when the pure white hair that he adored so much was coated with his blood.

"Your responsibility, such a childish answer, though it is admirable for a child to handle a man's job, that much I would give." The man said a crisp voice. "But you don't owe her mother anything, trust me child, that woman may look pure, but truthfully, that woman is a glorified bitch with a mean strict, and trust me, I speak from experience."

"That child's mother was a selfish and greedy woman. There is no one in this country that is more demented and evil than that woman, and I thank Kami that she's dead."

"And you intend to kill her daughter?" Ichika muttered as he headed towards the exit. "How pathetic! I know what you said is true. Shirayuki-hime is not as pure as most of those who knew her would like to believe. I hate her as well, but Setsura is a different story."

"She's my responsibility, and I truly enjoy raising her."

"You should be thanking me. I was in the process of freeing you from a burden that no child should endure."

"She's my responsibility, and I absolutely adore her." Ichika repeated again.

"The girl that your holding, she's Pandora's Box. If the secret of her heritage gets out, this country is going to be plunge into a civil war." The man all but shouted. "She's better off dead."

Without stopping, Ichika looked over his shoulders before glancing at the still unconscious Setsura. "Even if the world is her enemy, even if the world wants her dead, it does not change the fact that I swore that I would take care of her. I swore before her dying mother, and I swore in front of her grave that I would take care of her. The world may not acknowledge her existence, but that doesn't change the fact that she is my responsibility."

"I will raise her to be the most magnificent woman that this country had ever seen, and I will see to it that she will be the most powerful magician in this generation." Ichika told him, pride booming with each word that he utters. "I am an artist, and Setsura is my most precious and beloved masterpiece. The most beautiful gem in my collection, as well as the most valuable."

There was a moment of silence before the man let out a hysterical laughed. "What would your mother think of you, for taking care of the illegitimate daughter of her husband that she loves so much? What would your clan and her mother's clan do to her for bringing shame to their respective Names?"

"You may have saved her today, but she is living in borrowed time. Sooner or later, the girl's secret is going to be known, and when that happens, that sin that you're holding is going to die."

Those words successfully made him stop from my tracks as his anger suddenly exploded. "If you would have held your tongue, I would have let you live for the time you have left, but now... **[** **Tōgen Kyō (Blade Illusion Border)]** " Ichika roared loudly, and the sound of a body being split into several pieces echoed in the room, but Ichika paid it no mind as he merely continue to walk to the exit.

After taking several steps, Ichika felt Setsura move in my arms, which made me sigh. "Do not pay that corpse any attention." he told her with a calm tone while Setsura started to sob.

"Ichika-sama," Setsura whispered, and Ichika smiled wearily at her.

"Are you mad at me, for referring you as my art?" he asked her with a quite tone.

"No!" She answered weakly. "I'm so happy that Ichika-sama regarded me as his masterpiece, even if my life is nothing but a sin."

"Don't speak nonsense. Your very existence is my art." Ichika exclaimed proudly with a smile. "I want you to live, because it would be a waste for a masterpiece like youto just disappear without shinning like the star that I know you are." he exclaimed with a solemn smile.

"You're the most beautiful art that I have ever had the opportunity to admire and adore, and you will continue to grow to become a much more beautiful masterpiece, and I will continue to admire and adore you as you grow into an even more beautiful piece of art." Ichika told her as he held her tightly in his arms. "I will forever nourish, assists, help, and watch over you as you grow. That is my responsibility as an Orimura, and the greatest pleasure that I will have as an artist."

He nuzzled her head with his, giving her the affection that she rightfully deserve. "I didn't realize it at first or should I say, I refuse to admit it, but your existence became my pride. You became my pride." Ichika whispered sincerely to her. "Would you live and love yourself to protect my pride, would you at least do that for me?" he asked her sincerely as he allows her to cry on his chest.

"Yes, yes," She whispered repeatedly as she clung into him like a child.

"Thank you, my beautiful Imōto."

That was the first day Ichika ever refered to her as his little sister.

And that was the day that Ichika started to realize that he is slowly caring for her more than he should.


	3. Chapter 3

**Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: I.S Style.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own IS: Infinite Stratos OR Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei but I own this fiction and my own plot and techniques. All props go to fujin of shadows for writing the original story.**

 **Chapter 3:**

 **Wakanda (Africa) (Ichika age 11):**

Africa had the shorter end of the stick during the last world war, the reason? Japan's two dragons: His highness, Ryuuga and my grandfather Orimura Ichigo.

Those two run a path of destruction during the third world war. The two of them almost leveled Africa as a continent, and it was not pretty. Ichika should know, he has seen the evidence that were buried in the country's most secured archive. In fact that was how his bounty rose from 1.5 to 2.5 million yen. Anyway after the two of them were through with the continent, not only were the maps redrawn but some countries ceased to exist and others stated popping. Wakanda being one of them, a technologically advanced country that was once part of South-Africa. The country is only 30 years old and two thirds of that time were being sent in civil wars. The last one just ended.

 **Scene Change.**

Going through the streets of zambia, the newest capital of Wakanda, was an armed convoyeur that guarded a pitch black limousine. Inside were two people up front driving the vehicule. At the back were four people.

"One long year" stated an elderly black skinned man while looking from his car window. The man had greying hair, and a stylish goatee who was dressed in a black Armani three piece suit with silver cufflinks. His name is N'mani Makimba, the fifteenth prime minister of Wakanda, some might say that fifteen is a big number of prime minister for a thirty year old country but with the life expentacy of expentacy of the prime minister being less than five months, they should be thanking their lucky stars. N'mani himself being the man with the longest run in the office: two years.

"One long year, we've come so far in just one short year." said the prime minister.

"That is thanks to a great leader." said a much younger, dark skinned man, with a shavled face and short black hair. He wore a cheaper grey suit with a white shirt and black tie. His name is Simba Regis, a half british half Africans concellor for the Wakandan prime minister.

"No... the will of a strong people" replied N'mani while looking from the window and many Wakandan people were on the streets buying and selling merchandise, children were playing in the streets.

"And thanks to a great adviser" said T'chka before turning his sights to the people in front of him and the said

"Although all the credit should go to you and your team, Isn't that right, Mr Sin?" Sin just smirked and said

"Just doing our job, Mr prime minister." and the nice atmosphere that was beginning to spread in the limousine was shattered by the next words that came from Sin's companion.

"Well If you were capable you would've handled it on your own, Isn't that right _mr prime minister_ " the person snarled the words prime minister like they were venom.

"Not now panther, not now." said Sin, and the one named panther looked at Sin and was about to open his mouth but a glare from Sin shut him up. The one named panther was of African heritage. He is a massive and bulky bald man with a brown goatee and brown eyes. He also has two silver earrings on his left ear. He wore a pitch black muscle shirt and black pants, black boots and topped it all with a black trench coat. The most striking feature was a black panther necklace on his chest. The prime minister just ignored panther and continued

"I must admit, I once thought of groups like yours as opportuniste... enablers of war. But you're trained our new army well, order has been restored sooner than expected. Perhaps I was wrong about these "private military companies"." said the prime minister

"I don't think you are wrong sir. We aren't PMCs but we are called "private security provider" sir. Since most of my and my associates business is in ending wars than in starting them, also most of our contracts deal in providing security." said Sin

"Yes well, "security" can mean many things" said the prime minister

"There is a saying I like: 'One's sword keeps another in the sheath'... Sometimes the threat of violence alone is a deterrent. Sometimes by taking a life, others can be preserved. It's the code the samurai lived by..." he said impressing the prime minister

"Mm... A soldier and a philosopher. You are full of surprises Mr Sin."

"I could say the same about you. Mr prime minister." and the limousine came to an abrupt stop.

"What is happening?" asked Simba, Ichika curious as well, looked at panther

"Someone is blocking the lead vehicule... Hold on"

 **Scene change.**

"Clear the road! This official state business!" said one of the soldiers in the lead vehicule, this one armed with inbuilt machine gun. The soldier was talking to a man who had a prominent scar over his left eye, he also had brazilian features, black hair and eyes and he had a week old beard. The man was dressed with a black shirt, a pitch black bullet proof jacket. Black cargo pants and steel plated military grade shoes. The man was armed by a simple katana with a unique sheath, the sheath had a gun like contraction on it. The man smiled at the soldier before drawing his sword, showing a blood red blade with red lightning erupting from it. The soldier seeing that tried one last thing

"We have autorisation to use for..." was all he managed to say before the man took into a sprint, the soldier opened fire, but with speed and agility impossible for a human, without magic that it, the man either dodged or blocked the bullets with his sword, when he was about t'en feet away from the lead vehicule, the samurai wanabe jumped into mode air and, after blocking three bullet from the machine gun, cut the soldier. Three other vehicules similar to the lead vehicule stopped in front from each vehicule five soldier came out, each dressed with the same uniform and armed with an AK-47, the weapon of choice for third world country military. The brazilian just smiled twirled his sword.

 **Scene change.**

"What is happening?" asked Simba, and from his voice, Ichika could tell he was nervous.

"Stay strong." Said N'mani, apparently he wasn't the only one who realised that.

Seeing what just happened to the lead vehicule, Ichika ignored his charges for the moment and looked at the other mercenary in the limo

"Panther, U turn get us out of here" and the african did just that, as per protocole, they were followed by an armed escort of one armed vehicule. As they were about a mile away and as they passed a building, they didn't see a hostile with an RPG that took out the armed escort. They were about to turn back when a dozen hostiles dropped from the surrounding buildings. Ichika tapped his glasses, which doubled as his coms and said

"Hanzo, what is going on here?" and the Image of Hanzo appeared on his three

"I don't know Sin, these guys literally popped out of nowhere."

"Any clues?"

"Nope, they are most probably mercs, but no affiliation for now, I did manage to take a picture of the samurai that jumped you guys, I am running it through facial as we speak. For now, think you can handle your new friends?" said the hacker and Ichika just scoffed and got out of the car.

"Gendo, just make sure the guys are at the extraction point alright?" getting a nod from the elderly man, Ichika ended communication before looking at panther.

"Panther, take the prime minister to the extraction point five delta O, as per protocol. I will handle these clones." he said before summoning a daisho pair of his **[Geneiken (Illusion swords)]** , the katana in his right and the wakizashi in his left. As the car sped away Ichika swinged his sword at a nearby building, causing the five story building to collapse and block the path the limousine just went through. Ichika cracked his neck and said

"Alright guys, let's play!" and he rushed at the hostiles. They were dressed in what Ichika liked to call: the typical bad guy costume, an all black attire consisting of a a black bullet proof vest, black facemask, black cargo pants, and black military grade boots. Their guns were better though: FN P90 5.7mm SMG's with all black berettas as side arms.

As the hostile took aim with their guns, Ichika disappeared, before any of then could realise what happened, Ichika appeared behind the thugs and all their heads fell to the ground, when all the bodies fell to the ground they burst into flames. Before Ichika could think about it, an incoming call stopped him, from the ID it was Gendo

"What Is it?"

"Sin, you have to get to the car, none of the others are going to make it"

"What? Why?" and the answer came from three visuals appearing in front of him, showing his comrades in combat with unknowns

"All the others have been ambushed, you are the only one free, they are almost at the extraction point." said the hacker

"Understood" answered the bounty hunter before taking a magic powered leap that made him reach over thrity feet in the air.

 **Scene change:**

Adan C Dangli, was a war veteran and veteran mercenary. He is a middle-aged man with chiseled features, a flat nose and long spiky black hair standing upright. He has two vertical scars on the left side of his head. He wears a white and gray sleeveless camo shirt and a pair of beige shorts.

Adan's friendship with Ichika started when he, and a few of his friends created a militia group to fight the growing power of the Asian alliance in his beloved country. After many succesful operations they all had bounties on them, bounties in fact large enough that Ichika and the annoying lesbian came personally to capture them, that was during Ichika's no killing days.

Adan's magic allowed him to turn himself into a six meter tall behemoth with enough punching strength that a single punch of his in his **[Titan form],** a form in which he is more than six meters tall, is more than enough to decapitate someone, so imagine his surprise when Ichika not only stopped his fist, but he did it with a single finger! After the fight where his friends and him were beaten black and blue, Ichika asked why he was doing this. When the younger mercenay knew his reasons, him and the lesbian just left.

Less than a week later, him and his friends were captured, apparently one of the members of his militia sold them out, and when they were about to be executed by firing squad, Ichika came and saved them. From that day forward, Ichika and Adan became friends and fellow bounty hunters and they also did jobs together.

Currently the philipino juggernaut was on his knees, bleeding from multiple wounds on his person, he was of course in his **[Titan form]** , the reason for that wasn't the fifty or so endlaves that attacked him while he was being he was being in charge of the harbor.

Endlaves are gigantic robots that replaced tanks since the late 2050s. An endlave has two modes: a tank like mobile form and a human like form. The tank form is mostly for transportation in which the endlave collapsed on itself. The human form is straight lined, with thin legs and a rectangulaire shaped head with two spits that serves as eyes and glow in a red light. Though endlaves are nothing to a magician, in the long run, they are a nuisance.

And It wasn't that nuisance that got him injured, nor was it the twelve magicians that came with them, and it definetly wasn't the one hundred soldiers armed to the teeth that came as well. No all these factor were literally piled up behind him. What brought this elite magician to the ground was a physically bulky and muscular man with short and slightly spiky silver hair with sideburns, and he has green eyes with cat-like pupils. His torso is covered over with crossing black straps and shoulder guards. He wears a full body suit of leather that hugs tight upon his well built form. On his right arm is a retractable gauntlet that is apparently designed to function as a taser weapon with varying degrees of voltage. Capable of sending currents strong enough to shatter stone, as Adan just realised himself.

"Who... the... Huff... fuck... are... Huff... You!?" asked Adan while trying, and failing to regain his breath.

"Who I am is unimportant, what is important is the fact I am merely supposed to keep you here, so do us both a favor and stay down." said the white haired man.

"Like hell I will! **[Wanted Punch]** " roared Adan while sending a punch covered in an orange aura at his opponent, the punch was easily avoided, then countered by a punch to the guts by the shorter man, who using his gauntlet sent a discharge into Adan's body. The discharge was enough to kill a normal man three times over, so that should be enough to bring Adan down. That assumption was what caused the white haired man to let his guard down, and that caused him to take a punch to the face from the philipino. The man was sent flying twenty meters before he managed to bring his feet to the ground and stopped his flight, even still, the black clad man was still dragged an additional ten meters away from his opponent

"Got you know pretty boy!" said Adan, the white haired man just brought his finger to his lips and saw blood, his eyes changed from the bored look they had when he first appeared, they became as sharp as rasors, his body was surrounded by lightning and he said

"Alright, you wanna dance, let's dance **[** **Raitoningu Sutorēto (Lightning Fight Endure Encounter Mandatory Ejection Encouraging Sword)]** " and he charged at his opponent while his fist was surrounded by lightning.

"Alright asshole **[Wanted Punch]!** " and Adan did the same, with a fist covered in an orange aura.

The two attacks met in a shockwave that surrounded both the fighters in a dust cloud.

 **Scene change:**

Squall Meusel, Ichika's oldest partner in the mercenary business and a french national even if she hated the country, is a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, red eyes with a mole under her left eye, a beautiful face, voluptuous body and a large bust that been described as very attractive by Ichika. She was dressed in a business suit and skirt that were two sized too small which left nothing to the imagination genrally. Now her attire wasn't the problem for her, the problem was that she was currently hiding in a building after the entire sniper unit she was responsible for was shot down by an unknown shooter, then she was ambushed by a dozen or so unknowns, not that that mattered since they were all killed instantly by her, with three bullets no less. The problem was that the shooter that had her pinned was good, as good as her, and in a corner of her mind, one that she refused to aknowledge, even better. She was using an old fashioned Kimber Model 8400 Advanced Tactical.

The shooter was using a Knight M110C automatic sniper rifle, a proof of his skill since automatic are the hardest to use as sniper riffles and the man didn't waste a shot. Twenty shots fired, twenty kills. Her only shot at survival was waiting for help, so she contacted the nerd at HQ

"Hey nerd, I am completely surrounded here, I need help."

"Negative Squall, all the others are busy at the moment and I am on my way there myself."

"Putain... What's the ETA."

"ETA... Thirty minutes. If any of the others finish first I will direct them to you."

"Fine, what are the others doing?"

"Panther is driving the prime minister to safety, Sin is covering for him. Adan is being attacked by a magician who by the way can take him on in a fist fight, and Maria is being attacked by a loli swordfighter."

"Son of a bitch, well see you nerd when you get here." said Squall

"Alright kid see you... over" said Hanzo before cutting his connection. Squall sighed before preparing herself to survive the longest thirty minutes of her life.

 **Scene change :**

In another part of town, stood Maria, or as her enemies call her jack the ripper. She had a caucasian pale skin, dark golden eyes, short jagged purplish hair, a petite figure, yet she is quite small. She wore a small skin tight suit with a circuit pattern on it and also wore a black leather jacket over it.

Around her on the ground were around one hundred hostiles, all dead. The manner in which they died was all similar, cuts. That would coincide with the weapons that Maria had in her hands, two swords similar in design, a falchion. One was as black as the night the other as white as snow, Kansho and Bakuya, Maria's signature weapons.

Maria was a genetically engineered girl made by the Vatican in order to bolster their anti magician program. Out of the entire batch of one hundred child that were produced only Maria was deemed combat ready, the others were disposed off in different maners. The funny thing was that they called the whole thing the "holy sword project". Maria, number was sent to many missions at the age of five, after having finished her training to be "god's weapon on earth", and around three years later, when she was seven and Ichika eight, the infamous "immortal sin" was spotted in Sardinia, the execution order was given and she and her fellow executors were snet to give him divine justice. Needless to say they were all beaten into an inch of their lives. But in that fight Maria found a kindred spirit, a fellow human weapon, this one willing to be one instead of being made into one like her. She defected and seeked him once more. After another fight, Ichika decided to take her with and since then he took care of her, teaching her everything she now knew and lived by, since that day he became her everything, her father, her brother, her gardian angel, her Gabriel.

After seeing the ambushed by the pathetique men that she just killed, she decided to do what she was born to do, serve her Gabriel and fight by his side. But before she could do her duty she was intercepted by two black swords that were about to deacapitate her. She easily dodged the attack, stopped and glared at her attacker.

Her attacker was a short girl with black hair and red eyes. She dons a small dress with many intricate designs in the middle areas, connected to a bottom skirt that covers her entire lower body. The dress's blouse displays a set of lighter color edges on either side of the loose shoulder garments. Around her neck, with lighter outlines visible as well, the blouse is gifted with a hole revealing a small portion of her chest. Further; her stomach is covered by a slightly thicker adornment that spots a display of complex artwork. On the back, the girl dons a piece of clothing that allows her to sheath her double blades. Finally, the bottom of the dress that covers her lower regions seems to have two layers of clothing, resembling petals, and being of a light color

"Wow, nee chan is really fast, usually when I use this attack I simply kill my opponent." said the black haired girl, not at all concerned with the fact that her attack was just avoided.

"..." was Maria's answer

"You aren't really a talker are you? Well that's fine I guess I can talk for both of us" and just like that the black haired girl rushed her silent opponent with her twin wakizashis as her opponent retaliated with her twin falchions.

 **Scene change :**

Ten minutes, It had been ten minutes since Ichika tried to catch up to the bloody limo, and seeing that the thing only had like two minutes head start, and that Ichika was simply even faster than the fastest the car could go. Ichika should have caught up by now, so why didn't he? Well it's simple actually, every few meters some idiots tried to box him in, of course he never wasted more than a minute killing the idiots that tried, but time and time again and he was losing patience, so after dispatched the tenth group, Ichika stopped and muttered while glaring his Psions

"seal level one release..." and circuit like pattern appeared on his body "Access Orimura clan magic first tier magic..." the pattern started lightning up in a crimson color "Password: The crimson knight under the white moon." and in an explosion of crimson light Ichika's magic was further unlocked and he felt a sudden increase in body heat, he looked at the sky and said

"It's 1600 hours, around three hours to sun down more than enough time to save N'mani"

Ichika's magic was different from other Orimura's before him. While other Orimuras had a prefered type of energy to absorb and manipulate, they could still use other energy, Ichika is incapable of using any other than the one he is attuned to. Also unlike other Orimuras Ichika's magic wasn't just an energy manipulation magic but body manipulation as well. For reasons of secrety and because he can't use a magic frequency jammer on his energy manipulation spells unlike his **[Geneiken (Illusion swords)]** he seals them, the seal that he just released allows him to use first tier spells, the weakest of all his spell. Another reason is that the energy that he is attuned to is dangerous: light and solar energy, that makes it very hard to control and use but very powerfull, proof of that, all but one of his third tier spells are strategic class spells. The last reason, a reason that Ichika would never admit to himself or others is that Ichika was simply scared of using his magic, scared of its potential.

Ichika simply closed his eyes eyes and said " **[Yata no Kagami ("Eight Span Mirror")]** " after that he formed light between his hands, and reflects it on many mirrored and windows. When the light reached his wanted destination, Ichika then transformed into the light in order to get to his desired location. When he arrived he was given a welcoming commity in the form of a large laser. Even in mid air he simply dodged the beam. And when he hit the ground he analyses the situation.

 **Scene change :**

'Why am I doing this?' thought panther, or as he is called by his partner outside of work, T'chaka as he walked out of the limo after being cut off by the unknown hostiles. As he exited the limo, he flared his psions causing the panther necklace on his chest to glow before turning into a black liquid that covered his body. The liquid turned solid becoming a a black and silver-lined combat suit that is composed of a specially-designed Wakandan Vibranium-mesh weave akin to chain mail that is light-weight, vibration-absorbent, nigh-indestructible and renders him immune to most physical damages especially from collisions and conventional weapons such as firearms. The suit is accompanied by two sets of extendable and retractable Vibranium Claws embedded in the fingers of the gloves like nails and the Black Panther helmet which have similar properties with the suit, and is adorned with silver trimmings and slight pointed arches on either side of the top that mimic the ears of the animal. The helmet seems to have some kind of safety lock in the rear area, enabling it to attach firmly to the user's head. The whole thing was made by Ichika as a gift, he called it the panther habit. As T'chaka was about to engage the twenty or so hostiles he thought about how he met Sin

After being torn apart by the two dragons of Japan during World War Three, The newly formed Wakanda alongside many other old or new African countries decided to start a new military program that they called, ironically since it was being spearheaded by a japanese researcher, the **Shin Jinrui Sōzō keikaku (New Human Creation Plan)** , the outline of said program was simple:

Africa is overwhelmed by the power Japan possess, pushed into a corner and left with no other option but to experiment on humans; experiments which were inhumane and unthought of before the deadly magicians tore the whole country to pieces. There were two directions in which the experiments took.

An experiment that was performed during this time period was one which utilized Adamantium alloy to craft the strongest soldiers: Mechanical Soldiers. By replacing a human's innards or limbs, the human itself was able to manifest power foreign to men.

The other was by using a super soldier serum and special radiation, the goal was to create soldiers that were faster stronger, took more damage to put down and healed more severe injuries easily. That was the direction that T'chaka was subjected to.

The program was shut down because of it low success rates, seeing that only 5% were battle ready, the rest weren't because of many reasons: mental instability, adamantium poisoning, death, comas... etc... etc. But what really shut the program down was the fact that two of the test subjects just turned psycho and killed everyone at the facility: researchers, test subjects, guards... Everyone was killed. T'chaka barely escaped and since then had been on the run. A few years later, he met Sin and Maria on a hunt, and Sin saved his life, since then he has been his loyal partner on most of his jobs and his most loyal confident, other than the catholic zealot but that was just him of course. And that is why since Sin told him to save prime minister asshole, even though he hates this entire damn continent, Panther was going to save prime minister asshat.

As he exited the vehicule, he was shot by one of the mercs, he lazily dodged it, a perc of being enhanced biologically was that his reflexes were ten times better than an average human being, he was also a few times faster, add self enhancement magic, his speciality, and the runes entraved on the habit to the mix and even guns were not enough to slow him, from there he had multiple choice in how to kill the hostiles, lacerations with his claws, caving their chests with his punches and kicks, breaking their necks, you name it. Anyway, less than two minutes later, all the hostiles were dead, he was about to get in the car and drive away to another location under the orders of the nerd when the biggest endlave he had ever seen jumped from the water.

The endlave has a very humanoid appearance. Its most prominent features are its wide, flared shoulders, long, back-curving antenna on either side of its head, and the three "stakes" mounted on the left arm of the machine. It was a silvery white color. It also had red jewels on its joints and a big one in its chest.

"Hanzo, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" he asked with a shaky voice on the inbuilt coms in his habit.

"Seeing, still working on believing" answered the eldest member of their little group.

"Any idea what I am facing?"

"It's called the gespenst, a german UME prototype model, It wasn't supposed to be on the market for another year at least."

"UME?" asked the Wakandan mercenary, unfamiliar with the term

"UnManned Endlave, they are the new thing I guess. Why fight in wars when you can have machines do it for you?" answered the hacker

"So can you hack the damn thing?" asked T'chaka

"Sorry kid but I would need two hours from where I am to do that"

"I see, well I suppose I am going to have to see how good this endlave really is" said T'chaka preparing himself to fight the machine in front of him. Until he had to duck under the limo that was sent towards him. Looking at the one who did that, T'chaka felt his blood run cold.

The person who flung the car was a pale, lean man, with slicked-back, grey hair; reaching to the back of his neck, and moderate sized ears. His entire face is, however, covered by a white mask, only leaving portions of his jawline exposed. His most intriguing accessory is a white mask that covers his entire visage. The mask itself is simply design with a mischievous smirk running from its cheekbones down to, slightly above, the jawline and arching back up to his opposite cheekbone. Granting him visibility are two crescent-shaped spots flowing downwards, forming a wicked portrayal along with the mouth piece. Kagetane's upper body is completely covered by a connected jacket with three buttons on either side. The jacket's collars are flipped, giving view to a plant-like design on the inside and several diagonal lines on the higher areas. The jacket's end spots a split cape elongating to his feet. Underneath the jacket, Kagetane dons a white shirt with many buttons and a small collar, as well as a small bow-tie around his neck. His lower regions are covered by a pair of pants spotting multiple lines jutting downwards. Circling around his thighs are two straps, where he keeps both his custom Berettas. The man covers his hands with white gloves, and wears a magician's hat on top of his head.

The man's appearance was terrifying enough, but T'chaka's reaction was beyond being frightened, it was just his instincts that made him take two of the hostile's FN P90 and emptied both of the magasines on the man who simply watched as the bullet neared him, when they were about five feet away the bullets just dropped in front of the masked as if they lost all their energy. As the masked was about to open his mouth to infuriate his opponent two smoke grenades exploded at his feet covering him in thick smoke. T'chaka jumped into the smoke, trying to use the smoke in order to kill his opponent but that was not to be as the battle ended with a single word

" **[Immusionary Gimmick]** " was all the warning T'chaka had before being hit with the force of a train and sent flying away into a wall that broke like a biscuit. The man in the suit looked at his opponent and said

"Always the brash one T'chaka" said the man as he slowly walked towards the limo and pulled Makimba who tried to run away by the legs. Before knocking the prime minister out and putting him on his shoulder.

"What... are you... doing here... Huff... Kagetane?" wheezed T'chaka while trying to stand up, a task that proved to be impossible with the damage that he had just taken. Kagetane just looked at where T'chaka should be since he couldn't see him because of the rubble and said casually

"Nothing you should be worried about." he then looked at the gespenst and said "Kill him" the endlave turned towards T'chaka and aimed using an inbuilt machine gun at T'chaka who just tought

'I never thought I'd say this, but Sin if you can hear me get your ass here' and as if he heard his prayers a golden beam hit the endlave on the head causing it lose balance and miss T'chaka before the beam hit the ground and turned into Sin.

 **Scene change :**

As Ichika landed on the gound, he quickly analysed his surroundings. Noting the presence of the man in a suit that definetly gave off a bad vibe and a giant Endlave twice the size of a normal one. But the most important information was T'chaka that was buried in a wall, a quick magical analysis and he already knew all of the man's injuries

'All his ribs are broken, as well as both legs in at least three different locations but the most important injurie is the broken spine' after finishing his analysis Ichika pointed his gun CAD at Panther then squeezed the trigger, a yellow light surrounded the dark skined mercenary before he stood up as if all his injuries disappeared. He stood by Ichika's side getting himself ready for a fight.

"Who is he panther?" asked Ichika

"His name is Hiruko Kagetane, his psycho daughter and him are former members of the of the **Shin Jinrui Sōzō keikaku (New Human Creation Plan)**. They were also the psychos that shut it down."

Ichika looked at Kagetane before asking T'chaka another question

"Which path they took with him?"

"Mechanical Soldier. They replaced his organs with adamantium ones and that allows him to create a force field around himself that can stop a tank shell point blank." Ichika nodded and then pointed at Gespenst and asked "A Gespenst?" but It was Gendo that answered

"Yeah and a UME to booth and no I can't hack It from where I am." Ichika merely shrugged and said

"I wasn't asking you to, who is the closest operative to here Hanzo?" asked Ichika

"Maria's about ten minutes East of your location."

"Panther, go back Maria up Gendo will guide you to her." Panther was about to argue when a glare from Ichika shut him up, so panther just nodded and jumped away. Ichika looked at Hiruko who said

"So you are Sin, I must command you for your training, these troops were some of the best in the world after you were done training them." Ichika merely ignored him to ask his own question

"What do you plan to do with the prime minister?"

"I want him dead, nothing personal of course it's just that Africa is getting a bit too peacefull."

"What?" asked Ichika but he was ignored

"Well you see for a few years business hasn't been the same since the rest of the world is stopping wars, it's just you asians that are still going at it you know." Then Kagetane did quotation marks " 'A clean break from the war economy' they said, but some of us liked that economy, how is an honest war monger supposed to make a living"

"This is your answer?" and his answered was a laughed from Kagetane and a drawn beretta

"Don't do It" said Ichika

"Don't worry now I won't. Now while he is still useful." that got him a glare from Ichika

"So long." and Hiruko was gone with a magic enhanced jump. Ichika was about to give chase when the gespenst blocked his road. Ichika merely smirked before summoning one of his **[Geneiken (Illusion swords)]** and prepared himself to duke it out with the Endlave.

 **Scene change :**

The docks were a mess, the whole place was as if a typhoon had hit the place, containers ruptured broken ships and machines and the ground was turned to dust and glass here and there. The cause? The two titans that were ducking it out in the middle of It all. Adan had seen better days, all his ribs were broken one of his eyes was shut by the swelling and an arm was hanging limply by his side. His opponent was pretty much in The same boat, cracked ribs one eye shut by the swelling, a broken nose a few missing teeth and a broken arm.

But all these injuries were not enough to stop the two titans from coming to blows one more time, and another and another, when they were about to go at it one last time, a phone rang, quickly calling a time out Adan's opponent took a cell phone from his pocket

"Hey, I am in the middle of some thing here!"

"..."

"Yeah he was more troublesome than I thought"

"..."

"No, I am not getting soft"

"..."

"Alright I will leave now." and just like that the silver haired man crushed his cellphone while mumbling some that sounded like "stupid boss not letting me do what I want."

"Hey..." roared Adan as he was about to stand up and get ready for another round "Where do you think you're going?!" as for his opponent the silver haired man just looked at Adan with an irritated look and said

"Look man, I would love nothing more than to keep slugging it out with you until one of us dies here but my boss just told me to withdraw from here. Besides consider yourself lucky, my orders were to just keep your dumb ass here. Another thing is you ain't fooling no one, you're on your last legs buddy, so just tap out, there ain't no shame in that." As much as Adan wanted to deny that, he knew pretty boy was right, he could barely stand let alone fight, so he settled for turning into his normal mode glaring at his opponent. The unknown hostile took Adan's silence for a surrender and turned around and was about to leave when Adan asked him something

"Who are you?" the unknown magician just looked over his shoulder and said

"Normally our identies are secret but for such a good brawl I'll make an exception, my name is Raiden." and just like that, the newly known Raiden disappeared leaving Adan to collapse as his injuries finally caught up with him, the last thought on the philipino's mind was 'Damn you pretty boy!'.

 **Scene change :**

Maria and her opponent were locked in a furious blade dance of slashing, thrusting, dodging and blocking. It was a dance so dangerous that a simple miscalculation could easily cause the death of one of the participants, Maria ducked under a slash from her opponent before countering with a thrust at the black haired sociopath's throat, an attack that was easily dodged. The red eyed swordsgirl lunges at the former executor and attacked with a flurry of slashes that were either dodged or evaded. Maria having enough of being on the defensive decided to counter attack, after dodging an over extended attack from her opponent she decided to counter with a thrust to the chest of her opponent, the attack was perfect, the timing, the speed, everything was perfect, the attack would have landed on an ordinary opponent, even a well trained one but the red eyed girl was anything but ordinary, the proof of that was when she used her sword to receive the enemy's blow but instead of redirecting the force behind her, as many swordsman would do, she made a circular motion and redirects the force back at Maria. Such a manoeuver would have worked on many people, but the former executor dodged it receiving a simple paper cut on her neck. The black haired girl just grinned and said

"Wow, you're good nee chan, not many could dodge my **[** **Madoka (Circle)]** , that just makes worth killing!" she said with a sadistic smile

"..." Maria's answer caused the black swordsgirl to sigh

"Still with the silent treatment huh. No matter talking isn't my thing anyway!" she screamed before rushing Maria again with many attacks, but this time Maria didn't want to get into a contest of skill an speed and opted for strength, she reinforced her body with magic and stopped the charge by entering a deadlock with the other swordsgirl, the executor and her opponent both jumped while keeping their swords locked and while they were in mid air, the red eyed girl decided to slice by using another one of her techniques "[ **Oboroguruma Adanotsuji (Hazy Wheel - Foe Crossing)]**!"She said before loosening the grip on both her swords then proceeds to spin them in a wheel-like fashion to slash Maria in a spinning manner, such an onorthodox not to mention dangerous manoeuver was unexpected by Maria and that caused her to take a hit in her right shoulder, but Maria wasn't done yet and she countered by stabbing her opponent in the future stopping the black haired from following through with her attacks lest she gets killed, as both girls landed they both grabbed their injuries with their hands

"Damn... your reputation... doesn't do... you justice... I don't remember... the last time I was... this injured..." said the girl before some sort of white mist covered her injury and then just like that it closed, but the red eyed girl looked a lot more tired.

"Attacking even when in the face of defeat, that is how I was thought." Said Maria for the first time in the fight

"Well look at you, talking and all that, I almost thought you were mute."

"If words are silver, then silence is golden, another lesson"

"I can't say I disagree but good things must come to an end. As a gift before sending you to hell, let me give you my name, Hiruko Kohina" said the newly named Kohina before her body glowed with Psions.

"Maria" answered the former executor before she got ready for whatever was coming. But nothing prepared her for what happened next, multiple slashes appeared in front of her and try as she might more than two thirds hit home. After the salvo ended Maria was covered in cuts, a small mercy was that none of them were deep but they still hurt like a bitch. Seeing her handywork Kohina whistled in aprouval

" **[Kengeki Umenoki ("plum tree swordplay")]** is a slashing attack like the branches of a tree, limitlessly expanding. The fact that you managed to block any of them is beyond impressive" and then her eyes turned psychotic "But the next one is going to kill you nee chan, if **[Kengeki Umenoki ("plum tree swordplay")]** is like the branches of a tree, then the next attack is ten times faster and like the scattering of millions upon millions of flower petals." and her body glowed with even more Psions than the last time "Die! **[Ouka ("cherry blossom")]**!" but before the attack could start Kohina was kicked with enough force to send her head first into a building and collapsed said building on her after that, Maria looked at her savior and saw T'chaka who simply grinned at the Italian magician and said

"Hey there Jack how have you been." the answer was simply Maria glaring at him and saying

"Shut up... kitten.'' that caused the dark skinned teen to just sigh before saying

"How are you feeling Maria? Did she hurt you to much?" Maria merely shook her head before saying

"It's not really an issue, more importantly we have to reach Gabriel and help him." she tried to walk away but her legs betrayed her injuries and forced her to one knee, T'chaka saw this and said

"Nope top priority is getting you help kid, and before you start arguing remember, Ichika would never forgive for letting you fight in this condition." At the mention of Ichika Maria seemingly agreed with her comrade before letting him carry her to one of the many rendez vous points throughout the city. If they had just remained for a few more seconds they would have seen Kohina exit the demolished building with a bruising in her face as she was talking in a cellphone.

"Hai boss sama, I have finished my objective."

"..."

"Yep, she was just as good as you said she would be leader sama."

"..."

"Nope, my injuries are not that severe."

"..."

"Haï, I will take a break." and just like that she left the area while still continuing to talk on the phone.

 **Scene change :**

As both opponents stared each other down, one mechanical the other human, both Ichika and the gespenst were analyzing each other, one based on the intelligence it had in its database, the other by using his beyond normal eyesight to analyse the component of its mechanical nemesis. After what seemed like days, but in reality was less than a couple seconds, the gespenst decided to act first, by pointing its arm at Ichika and opened fire with a M61 Vulcan, a six barel machine gun that fires 20mm rounds that were either dodged or knocked away by Ichika. Knowing that the rate of fire of this type of weapons is 6000 rounds per minute and that the bombardement lasted for 2 minutes, then you're can say that Ichika managed to withstand a 12000 round barage. When he was about to counter attack with his swords, the endlave eyes shined before it said in a robotic voice:

"Enemy recognised, Codename: Sin. Commencing engagement protocoles. Activate zeus canon." and it opened its 'mouth' before firing a beam as large as a coin at Sin who wasn't fast enough to dodge and ended being pierced by the attack. Sin staggered backwards for a few seconds before glaring at the tin can while his wound closed up before holding out his right ornemental pistol, charging multiple **[Kudou dan]** around its barrel simultaneously before firing them as a barrage at his opponent while saying " **[Mugen Dangan Kudou Dan (Infinite Ammunition Hollow bullet)]** " the endlave didn't even bother to move as the jewels situated in his joints shined

"Attack analysed. Commencing damage simulation. Damage simulation complete. Commencing defense protocols. Activating Baryon shield." and a transparent red shield appeared in front of gespenst stopping the barage of energy bullets. When said barrage ended, Ichika was nowhere in sight. Just as it was about to start scanning the area for signs of life, the endlave heard a voice from above, it turned its head upwards and saw Ichika aiming with his left ornemental pistol at it before shooting a yellow, sparkling sphere. The bullet split up into thin arrows that moved in all directions but according to its calculations would impact from various direction on it as the target.

""Attack analysed. Commencing damage simulation. Damage simulation complete. Commencing defense protocols. Activating Ajax shield" and the central Jewel in its chest glowed a fait pink before a barrier with the same color scheme appeared forming a dome around it. When the attack ended it opened its 'mouth and took aim

"Commencing engagement protocoles. Activate... Error... Error! Damage to the legs. Mobilty severely compromised." the reason for such an anouncement was the many blades that appeared from the ground and impalled the UME's legs, damaging them beyond repair. Ichika simply landed on the ground before saying

"Your AI is quite primitive, though the armements were state of the art, anyway it's time to end it **[** **Yasakani no Magatama ("Comma Jewel of Eight Shaku")]** " Ichika crossed his arms in front of him and uses both hands to fire a torrent of deadly light particles at the endlave, the endlave simply said

"Attack analysed. Commencing damage simulation. Damage simulation complete. Commencing defense protocols. Activating Baryon shield." and a transparent red shield appeared in front of gespenst stopping the barage of light particles. When the attack ended, as per its protocol Gespenst dropped its shields and was about to start offense protocols when Ichika appeared inside its guard in a flash of gold, with a black sword in hand and cut off both is legs and vulcan wielding arm before jumping and forming a black sword five times the bounty hunter's size and driving said sword inside the endlave's chest, permanent shutting it down. Ichika didn't bother waiting time with the now shut down endlave and instead contacted Hanzo while running in the general direction Kagetane left from

"HQ this Sin, endlave down I am now in pursuit of client."

"Sin this Hanzo, I am ten minutes out from your location. I am sending you a real time tracking of N'mani on your glasses." and just like that a display appeared on his glasses that showed his position in red and N'mani's in yellow. Seeing that Ichika thanked the hacker before asking a question

"The others?"

"Adan is a little roughed up but nothing a little rest won't fixe, Jack is pretty banged up but nothing life threatening and Squall is still an unknown since I am headed towards her right now." Ichika nodded before giving his orders

"Hanzo, regroupe with the others before coming for me. I'll be fine. Also capture one of the hostiles alive and analyse his blood for me and take the endlave and analyse the thing for me."

"Roger that, see you in fifteen Hanzo over and out." With the communication done for the moment Ichika started running while analyzing his prey's movements

'What is he thinking? He should be trying to leave the city not get deeper in it.' Normally Ichika would chalk it up to being green, but this guy is no amateur, he is a pro, so why was he getting deeper in the city when he should be trying to leave it? Not seeing an answer Ichika decided to keep running and ask questions later.

 **Scene change :**

Hiruko was running through the streets, using the prime minister N'mani as a human shield he managed to pass multiple check points controled by his men with his speed. The masked man knew that his men were going to die, but they were going to die doing their part in this venture, slow Sin and the mercenaries with him down. He had to admit that the six mercenaries were some of the best in the world:

Hanzo Gendo the human cyborg, the best hacker on god's green earth, a former japanese army general before leaving the country disgraced two decades ago.

Squall Meusel, a french national and the best gunslinger in the world, equalled only by the man that is currently keeping her occupied. She uses her telekenisis alongside her firearms to great effects.

Adan C Dangli, a Born Specialist magician with the ability to manipulate his body size. An ability that is deadly and that he made even more deadly with his experience in combat.

Jack the ripper Maria, an enhanced magician and human made by the Vatican, the girl had a kill count in the triple digits before turning rogue on her own organisation. She was an extremely close range fighter, so good that it was deemed suicide to fight at that range no matter the numbers.

T'chaka the panther, an enhanced human from the **Shin Jinrui Sōzō keikaku (New Human Creation Plan)** that Hiruko and his daughter destroyed a few years back. While he volunteered for the program and his daughter was born from another participant, T'chaka was sold to the lab, the same with many other children. He was a close range hand to hand combat specialist one of the best worldwide, second only to The Asian alliance's Lu Gonghu and Japan's Chen Long.

All of the above mentioned names were impressive, some even superhuman, but none of them was of a threat than the man that brought them all together.

Sin the bounty hunter, a child soldier with unparalleled skills in combat, a combat pragmatic and a weapons specialist, capable of hunting any prey as long as he had time to prepare for it. He was a skilled strategist and an even greater leader, his charisma was known far and wide, the most important aspect of his and what made him such a threat to their plans was his verstality, from close range to mid range to long range combat, from assassination to espionnage to leading entire opperations, from swords to guns to bombs even, the child soldier was capable of it all, the fact that he could take a lot of damage and that it took a lot to keep him down was also an added problem when dealing with him. The masked man stopped his musings when he realised that he was surrounded from all sides by army personnel armed to the teeth, one of the soldiers looked at Kagetane and said

"Surrender now and drop the prime minister!" and he made a signal for his teammates to start approaching the surrounded Kagetane. Hiruko on the other hand just looked at his watch, and saw the time '16:36, It should have been here by now.' just as he was about to kill all the soldiers, his enhanced bearing heard a sound, the sound of a moving train.

"You deaf, I said..." Was all the grunt could say before Kagetane jumped with a magic enhanced leap that allowed him to get on the cargo train that was passing by over a bridge. The soldiers were amazed by what just happened and they failed to see a red blur pass by them. The bluer was Ichika who was running while enhancing his body with magic, he stabbed his sword on the ground and used as a lever to change directions and continue following the train, after that he started running up a wall and then he jumped on the train just as it left the city.

 **Scene change :**

After killing a couple hostiles easily he might add, Ichika found himself in front of Hiruko Kagetane, who chained the prime minister into the engine, he also saw the man who attacked the convoy in the first place sitting on a crate, Ichika watched as Hiruko took one of his Custom Beretta, It was a black, oddly-shaped gun, called Spanking Sodomy if what he read on the barrel was right. Prominent features from Spanking Sodomy are the three spikes surging from the top of the gun's barrel and a Sabre-like metal elongating from the ejector rod to the gun's muzzle, meant to be used to mortally wound one's opponents by stabbing them. The user, from what he could tell as a gunshot, is able to remarkably shoot multiple targets at once whilst having their back turned to them, the gun allows for a flexible change of aim. As he got ready to save the prime minister, his instincts told him that he was in over his head, and Ichika for once in his carreer should have listened to said instincts.

 **AN. Hey guys here is another chapter done. So please review, like and share. I'll see all next time.**

 **Will Ichika save the prime minister?**

 **Will he be defeated?**

 **Until next time**

 **Immortal1145**


	4. Chapter 4

**Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: I.S Style.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own IS: Infinite Stratos OR Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei but I own this fiction and my own plot and techniques. All props go to fujin of shadows for writing the original story.**

 **Chapter 4:**

As Ichika stood in front of the two hostiles that managed to kidnap the prime minister, he couldn't help but study them, the two were seemingly relaxed but he couldn't find a single weakness in their armor, nor could he find a single opening from which to strike them down. While that isn't abnormal for an ordinary person, Ichika prided himself in being capable of finding an opening in just about anyone, no one could be completely guarded all the time, even the most paranoid person will let his guard down when being in familiar territory, especially at home, that is the reason that most his assassinations were done in locations controled by his targets. Yet even if things have gone absolute to plan from what Ichika can tell, even if his opponents had the numerical advantage, neither let his guard down, in fact they seemed even more tense now than before, such reaction in a situation like this, could only mean...

"You two aren't together on this?" it was formulated like a question but all parties except N'mani knew it was a statement. The two kidnappers looked at each other before Kagetane laughed and said

"What gave it away? The non matching uniforms?" he stated sarcastically

"Nope, your reaction to our current situation, everything is going your way and the only person standing in your way is me alone yet you two are even more tense than before." said Ichika, his response caused the brazilian to state with obvious mirth in his voice

"But that could be because of your rep, you are one of the best fighters worldwide you know amigo."

"That could be the case if it was one on one, but two on one that is incredibly impossible even for me. I mean my opponents are Hiruko Kagetane of the **Shin Jinrui Sōzō keikaku (New Human Creation Plan)** and Samuel Rodrigues also known as **Jetstream Sam** " Ichika lied, if he used his second tier spells he could kill both of them instantly but he doubted he could keep the fact that he was an Orimura secret if he did and that was a secret that he was willing to take to the grave, not even N'mani's imminent death was enough for him to release his seal, not that he thought he would have enough time to do so even if he wanted to. Anyway, Ichika's answer caused Sam to start laughing

"Hahaha... Well aren't you the smart one, the fact that you could tell so much from just the lack of openings from me and mask over here is impressive... but you aren't the only one special here my friend, the fact that you are here proves that you believe that you can defeat us both even if we both gang up on you, seeing your body language I can feel frustration, not at the situation itself but at the fact that you can easily solve it of you were to fight at you best, and knowing your style and who you are it is probably true that you can do it" Sam looked almost smug before asking "So? What do you think?" Ichika's concentration moved to Sam instantly, it seemed to the young mercenary that the brazilian born was just as good as him in the mind games departement. Ichika clenched his fists and got ready for the fight of his life by flaring his psions and his aura. Samuel did the same by drawing his sword and taking his own stance, but before neither of them could start anything, N'mani woke and seeing what was happening said

"Sin don't care about me and stop them!" he said and his eyes showed the eyes of a man who had accepted his fate, Hiruko used his mounted gun blades to hurt the prime minister elliciting a grunt of pain, he then looked at Ichika and said

"Too little too late, hero... I won't be needing my human shield any longer." he then turned himself towards the prime minister and lifted from his neck while saying

"What about all the good things war has done for us? Why don't we ever hear speeches about that? Jobs, technology, a common purpose..." By that point Sam was yawning, N'mani looked at Ichika and said

"Sin... Forget me. Stop him." Kagetane dropped him before grabbing his head and saying

"You aren't listening..." using his gun blades, Hiruko cut the chains forcing the minister to his knees, seeing an opportunity, Ichika dashed to save N'mani but he was intercepted by Sam's high frequency red blade forcing him to dodge by cartwheeling backwards. The half brazilian simply said

"Mind if I cut in?"

"Really? A cutting joke? Did you lose your edge?" came Ichika's snarky reply, he isn't above using snarky comments in combat. At the same time Kagetane lifted N'mani with one hand before using his other to hold his pistol

"All we're sayin' is... GIVE WAR A CHANCE!" finishing his declaration The enhanced human shot the prime minister in the heart and throwed his body off the train

"No!" whispered Ichika, A military grade apachy came and Kagetane took off on it while saying

"He's all yours Sam!" At the same time Ichika was rushing towards the masked man while screaming

"Out of my way!" but he was intercepted by Samuel, another slash from the brazilian forced him backwards, the man grinning like a loon simply said "Let's go" while taking a stance, Ichika replied in kind.

 **Scene change :**

In a heavily armed convoy, Hanzo Gendo, T'chaka and Maria were driving at top speed towards Ichika's GPS signature, the former executor was covered in bandages but she still had her mostly blank look

"How long until we reach Gabriel?" she asked with the same blank voice but if you knew her well enough you could detect urgency in her voice.

"ETA 12 minutes." the ripper nodded, she would have screamed in anger or in frustration or hurted someone, but she was a professional, trained by Gabriel to never let her emotions get in the way. T'chaka asked something that was on his mind for a while now

"How are Squall and Adan."

"Hurt but still kicking, mostly it was their egos that were harmed not their bodies." Both T'chaka and Maria nodded in understanding, when you are the best at what you do, you become prideful in that fact.

"How are their injuries?"

"Adan has a few broken bones and a mild concussion. Squall has been shot in the arm but nothing too serious, the two jokers will be up and running in a few hours, a day tops." Both Maria and T'chaka nodded before the wakandan said

"That's good, now the real threats are on the train, Hiruko Kagetane the 'aegis' and and Samuel 'Jetstream' Rodrigues." and the three mercenaries were counting the seconds until they reach their leader, hoping for him to be alright.

 **Scene change :**

Hiruko Kagetane, mechanically enhanced human, expert marksman, psychopathic killer and all around insane person was currently converting with his imployer.

"Hai boss, Sin was just as good as they said he was."

"..."

"Hai, just as you have instructed, he is currently locked in combat with Samuel."

"..."

"N'mani has been neutralized as ordered, that would make it easier for us to destabilise the region."

"..."

"Of course sir, has the agreed upon payement been delivered?"

"..."

"I see, so there is no reason for me to stay here, correct?"

"..."

"So can I stay? I think things will become more rowdy soon with 'their' plans in the **Shin Sobieto renpō (The Federal Republics of Soviet)**."

"..."

"Hai... Hai... I will be carefull."

"..."

"Glory to the **Dai Ajia Rengou (The Great Union of Asia)**."

 **Scene change :**

Duck, slash, stab and slice. Those were the lyrics of the song that was being written right now by Ichika and Sam. How long have they been at it? One minute? Two? Five? Ten? Who knows all they knew was that the moment one of the slips out, the other will take it and the battle will be over. An overhead slash by Sam shatters Ichika's sword, disarmed Ichika grabs the brazilian's the wrist with his left and grabbed his arm by the elbow with his right. He pivoted his hip to turn and leaned Sam's weight on his back and shoulder.

"?!" the Jetstream was caught off guard.

" **Shinono Ryu! Kawa Nage Gaeshi!(Shinono Style! River Throw Reversal!)** " shouted Ichika as he performed a judo styled redirection shoulder throw on Sam whose eyes were widen as he lament himself for such foolish mistake…How could he forget that Japan is the home of Judo…No…Not Judo…Jujitsu…the Art of Grapple, Throw, and submission. Conjuring another sword, this one a kodachi, Ichika does a stabbing motion to his opponent's forehead only to have to dodge a foot to the face by jumping backwards, Sam takes advantage of that and rises to his feet. Smirking, the brazilian says

"Self thought style... based on the Orimura Ryu kenjutsu and the Shinono Ryu ninjutsu... Impressive, but there is something lacking..." he dodges a thrust by Ichika's kodachi and tries to counter attack, but true to its name, the **kodachi (Shield sword)** allows Ichika an easier time handling the offensive of his opponent by using the shorter reach of the blade for maximum manoeuverability. Dodging multiple slashes by the shorter weapon, Sam jumps backwards and continues

"Now I see. Your swords might no be real like mine, but you deny your weapons their purpose! They yearn to bath in the blood of your enemies... but you hold them back!" Ichika simply frowns but answers his opponent

"No... My sword is a tool of justice." Samuel sighed before stabbing the sword into the top of the train, and rushing his opponent while dragging his weapon, the friction caused by that action caused the blade to be set on fire, swinging his fire blade, Sam pushed Ichika back with brutal force and using the flames as a screen, Ichika was struck by a magically reinforced shoulder tackle that broke his kodachi, bruised his chest and caused him to be sent flying backwards. Landing on his feet, Ichika took a stance, formed a nodachi in his hand to replace the broken sword before he positioned it parallele to the ground, his sword aura was suffocating enough to cause any lesser man to be brought to his knees but Samuel Rodrigues was not a lesser man, recognising the threat level of the child, NO, man in front of him, he decided to use the technique that he perfected through many battlefields, a technique that allowed to survive many difficult opponents and saved his life more times than he would care to remember against monsters that he does his best to forget. He rushed his opponent while 'fusing' with his sword and to his opponent he became a white wraith like silhouette while his sword and his hand became one. The technique was called **Shinto Gōrenzan (Heart and Blade Become One)**. This technique is the epitome of his philosophy that one must fight with their weapons as one. This technique cannot be learned through pure skill but the user must have an intimate bond with their sword and there must be trust between the sword and user. This technique could be considered the truth behind the man known as 'Samuel Rodrigues'. As he unleashes this kill blow the brazilian roared at his opponent

"This is what happens when you bring a tool to a sword fight!" as he drew closer to the masked mercenary, he expected many things, but none of them prepared him for what he saw...

 **Scene change : (Ichika POV).**

I saw it…For a brief moment I saw it.

His body became a white wraith like silhouette. His arms… his sword…They fused? Is this magic? Did he somehow fused with his sword... Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Samuel Rodrigues, no, Rodrigues Samuel, for such a feat of swordsmanship can only be done by a true blooded japanese samurai, you are a man that deserves my respect, that technique that you just used was incredible... no... It was beyond incredible, this technique is without a doubt a technique that you honed your whole life, poured your life and soul into, as an answer I will use my own ultimate technique, one that will without a doubt bring you down. I breathed before stepping forward and swinging once from the right.

One slash.

I swung again from overhead leaving no chance to jump out of the way.

Two slashes.

I shifted my stance and swung for a final third time from his left.

Three slashes.

Left. Center. Right.

All three strikes occurred simultaneously instantly. All three arching over-lapping slashes that disregarded the concept of time and space, produced an attack that arrived from three different dimensions. It was such a technique that it transcended speed, dexterity, feints and many other elements. While he blocked the second one, two attacks hit. My sword hit him in the neck, and chest. But I felt him use reinforcement magic on himself and my current **Geneiken (Illusion swords)** at the limiter at level one were rather brittle so the sword shattered unable to handle the stress. So what normally was a fatal technique that would decapitate a person was lightened to grievous injury, I saw him stumble backwards and use his sword to stay standing before asking...

 **Scene change : (General POV).**

'What was that technique? Not even my eyes could track it, all I saw was three different slashes occurring at the same time. That's impossible though. Was it a space-time technique? No… it was something more.' Thought Sam as he tried to keep himself standing, a task that was getting harder by the second since he was losing a lot of blood, but he had to stay awake for a few more minutes so that he could make his escape if he stayed alive though, so he asked a question to the victor of their little fight, since the victor was without a doubt already been declared by the last exchange

"What was that?" he asked

"Have you ever heard of the legendary swordsman Sasaki Kojirou?" At that question all Samuel could do was widden his eyes, which self respecting swordsman didn't know the name Sasaki Kojirou, the rival of Musashi, but then that would mean the technique was...

"Well he was a person with almost unrivaled skill with the blade. The technique is called **Hiken: Tsubame-Gaeshi (Hiden Sword: Swallow Return)**. He had developed it on a whim to cut down a swallow in mid-flight. They say he found that swallows feel the shaking of the wind caused by the sword strike in order to avoid the blade. It was impossible to avoid disturbing the air, no matter how fast he struck, and a sword can only move in a straight line." Ichika gave an example by swinging the blade into the air. "You also have to remember that the bird can move horizontally or vertically to avoid it so a single strike is not enough to cut it down. This means that the bird's escape route must be blocked off, so after the first attack another is necessary to trap it."

Ichika was spinning the blade casually now slightly showing off. "But the second blow can't possibly be done in time to hit the swallow and suffice to say it is beyond human capabilities to attack multiple times in one single instant. So Sasaki Kojirou accepted that it was impossible, but he was a man that had nothing else to do, so he spent his entire life practicing the sword in order to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship. After an untold amount of years, he perfected it and to his surprise it reached another state entirely. He created the ultimate killing technique by doing nothing but spending his life swinging his sword following a worthless idea on how to kill a simple swallow." now Sam was floored, his opponent managed to recreat the legendary technique of Sasaki Kojirou at the young age of eleven. He was tempted to run away but his pride was not letting him do that, luckily for him his little 'additions' were done patching him up as best as they could so he was ready to go for one last round.

Ichika seeing that his opponent was no longer bleeding like a faucet, got himself ready for one last clash, summoning one of his blades he got himself ready. Samuel did the same with his high frequency red blade, the brazilian said

"Let's end this Sin." as they were about to do just that, a hail of bullets was shot at Sam causing him to move backwards while dodging and batting away the bullets. Both swordsmen looked to their right and saw three armed vehicules each with a machine gun that were firing at Sam, on one of them was Gendo Manning one of the guns, seeing their fight interrupted, Sam quickly withdrew himself into the Apachy that just came to pick him up while saying

"Lucky devil... It seems our fight will have to wait Sin." and just like that he left. Gendo took an FIM-92 Stinger and fired a missile at the Apachy who easily countered it by firing flares. Since the FIM-92 Stinger is a man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM) the flares were a good enough counter. It was developed in the United States of America and entered into service in 1981. It is classified as a Man-Portable Air-Defense System (MANPADS). Before Gendo and the others could fire again the plane disappeared in to the mountains.

 **Time skip one day:**

Inside one of his many jets, Ichika and his comrades were sitting in a conference room, while the jet was small, not commercial class, it was quite roomy with six individual rooms, a conference room/ dining room, a toilet with showers included and most importantly a small kitchen where Ichika can work his magic.

The jet that they was on was one of his best creations, the best of all the jets that he ever made, and that included the ones he made for the military and his mother's personal fleet of fighter jets, he might be a patriot but like any inventer he keeps his best creations for himself. Designed for stealth and equip with the most sophisticated auto-pilot in existence, with weapons that utilizes his own magic as ammunition. The jet runs on his psion, and considering how high his psion count is, the jet could fly for a month straight at top speed.

They were currently having breakfast, a simple continental breakfast better than most hotels maybe but still simple, while discussing the major clusterfuck that happened less than 24 hours ago.

"These assholes came out of nowhere and took us by surprise Sin." started Adan causing the others to frown, Squall decided to add her two cents

"We have been healed by Ichika's **[Regrowth]** magic but we were banged up pretty bad, I still don't know who got me with his shot, just that it wasn't some nobody that did that, they had some serious skills, it shouldn't be hard finding an organisation with that kind of pull to have guys like those that jumped us..."

"Two organisations..." Interrupted Ichika causing the others to look at him, seeing that he had the individed attention of all the other people in the room, Ichika pressed a button on the table that caused a virtual display to appear where all the key people that were involved in the battle and started making a head count

"Hiruko Kagetane and Hiruko Kohina, father daughter combo that were once part of Wakanda's **Shin Jinrui Sōzō keikaku (New Human Creation Plan)** and also the ones that ended the damn thing, the father was given the nickname Aegis for his defense and the daughter was called **Santa Theresa** the praying mantis for her skills as well as he psychotic behavior. Terrorists, hired killers and mercenaries for many years until two years ago" as what they saw from the diagram theye were grouped together alongside the man that attacked Adan, Gendo had to ask

"Why are there three groups?"

"When I caught up to Kagetane and Sam, it wasn't a two on one situation, it was a mexican stand off, all three of us were looking at each other expecting an attack, highly unusual when dealing with a two on one sitution. As for Kohina she is Kagetane's only known associate."

"What about pretty boy?" asked Adan while pointing at the man who beat him black and blue. Ichika nodded and said

"According to Gendo's snooping around, his name is Yosef, a former member of **HaMossad leModi** **ʿ** **in uleTafkidim Meyuḥadim (The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations)** or Mossad for short, one of their top opperatives, a specialist intelligence gathering, torture and assassination, nicknamed the **[lightning leopard]** for his speed and his magic and the **bone doctor** for his torture skills, he was one of the best until he went MIA presumed KIA... Two years ago." At that both Adan and the rest nodded, in their line of work such coincidences don't happen often if ever. Ichika then pointed at the brazilian swordsman and said

"Samuel Rodrigues was descended from a long line of swordsmen, dating back to 16th century Japan. His father ran a Brazilian Kenjutsu dojo, and specifically taught the Uradachi technique, better known as Satsujin-ken or "the murdering sword," which dealt with violence as the end goal. Sam's father was eventually killed by one of his pupils, with one of the drug cartels being rumored to have been involved for reasons and methods unknown, although not before Sam personally inherited his Murasame blade from his father. He then left Brazil, presumably to train, and eventually returned to kill the pupil in question before leaving Brazil permanently." Ichika then paused and took a sip of his orange juice, putting the cup down he continued

"Afterwards, he travelled the world as a mercenary, and taking various odd jobs, including a job as a bodyguard and as a cleaner for the Mafia and the like. He also made a name for himself in the criminal underworld, especially within South and Central America, with one story being that he managed to take down a hit squad composed of 10 mob enforcers with automatic weapons and magic using only his sword during the late 2080s." the rest of the Crew nodded grimly at the intel, Ichika then pointed at a picture with a question mark on it and said

"This guy is the sniper that kept Squall distracted and unable to reach us, he is an unknown thus his allegeance is also an unknown, he could be with either sides for all we know." At this T'chaka had to ask

"Why just these two, he could be also a merc or some other organisation no?" At this both Ichika and Hanzo shook their heads in negative

"Not possible T'chaka." started The human cyborg "This is world stage level planning, such an undertaking requires completely loyal subordinates, such things will never be left to the hands of a simple mercenary, the theory that he is a member of another organisation is, while possible, not very likely but we will keep an ear to the ground and see what happens." after that Ichika asked the question that he had on his mind

"Did you analyse what I asked you?" At seeing Gendo's nod, Ichika proded him to speak his mind

"Well..." he started and put a USB stick to a special USB port on the table causing a virtual display to appear showing some weird mechanical gizmo that looked like insects that Ichika recognised as nanomachines "In the blood of the hostiles that attacked us, I found nanomachines that had several effects on their hosts: Numbing their emotions and physical pain, enhancing their physical prowess and healing, boosting their nervous system you name it as well as remote controlling it, the last function is destroying their bodies and themselves upon the death of the host. These nanomachines are at least two three decades ahead of their time" At that Ichika frowned, thinking of the many scientists that could do that, but before that he had something else on his mind

"And the UME?"

"Well that's even more disturbing Ichika... That wasn't a UME... It was a cyborg..." Hanzo dropped a bomb

"A cyborg, you mean to tell me that..."

"Yeah... The bastards stuffed the brain of a kid inside the endlave and had it control the damned thing... Well not completely since the endlave moved due to a set of preset commands and directives but the body it self was being moved by the brain. When you disabled the cyborg the brain was fried." continued Hanzo Gendo

"Wait a minute nerd..." said the lesbian "you just said kid, how old are we talking here?"

"Judging by the size of the brain I would say nine to ten years old." Ichika froze at that, ten years old, the same age as Setsura his little sister, the very thought of something like that happening to her filled him with fury and rage, he said while trying, and failing magnificently at that, to hide his rage

"Anything else you managed to discover from the cyborg."

"Yeah some extremely cripted coding, if we work together at this we can have it done by two days Ichika." Ichika nodded and asked for the encryption, seeing it Ichika recognised the coding used and said

"Computer."

" **[** Hai Ichika-sama. **]** " came a robotique voice from one of the one of the many speakers all around the jet. The voice belonged to an AI that Ichika created a couple of years ago.

"Activate Trojan horse protocole. User Name: White Knight."

" **[** Understood **]** " and they saw as the coding started disappearing until a logo appeared, one that Ichika and the others were very familiar with

"Desperado Enforcement LLC." growled Adan, since he like most of those in the room hated child experimentation. Ichika simply said

"Computer, set course to location M.A.R.S. and use the back channels."

" **[** Understood Ichika-sama, ETA 7 hours 25 minutes. **]** " nodding Ichika sat down in his chair, seeing what just happened, Hanzo asked

"What just happened? How did you undo the whole encription." openings his tired eyes, Ichika sighed before answering

"You once told me that I must always keep a back door in any one of the softwares I design, I did just that and that was one of the only two encryption protected softwares that I created. One is in Japan, the other was given to a private company"

"Deperado?" asked Adan

"No someone else, we are going to visit that someone else right now."

"What are back chanels?" asked the emotioneless executor

"They are flight plans that are indetected by radars at certain altitudes and certain times, by going through them you are basically invisible to radar, by knowing all of them, and by studying the weather and the blind spots and the times of said blind spots I created an algorithm that allows me to go anywhere in the world undetected, pretty handy too even if the time is increased."

"Where are we going?" asked Squall

"Antartica answered Ichika."

 **Scene change : (Antartica).**

Seven hours later, Ichika and his merry men arrived at their destination all of them dressed in winter clothing. When they where about to land instead of ice they found an asphalt runway that took them to a cave, where armed men took them to an elevator that took them to an underwater fortress. Squall seeing this and the calm look on Ichika's face had to ask thequestion that was on everyone's mind

"Who are we meeting here?" Ichika simply gave her a look and said

"James McCullen XXIV, the founder and CEO of M.A.R.S. Industries." that answer made the other mercenaries gape since even Maria, the one that was usually uninterrested in the mundane world, knew who he was.

If Orimura Ichika was the best weapon maker of Asia, then James McCullen XXIV was one of the best weapon makers world wide. Even their backgrounds were similar, both came from highly militaristic families but instead of being soldiers themselves they decided to pursue a carreer in weapon's manufacturing and selling, both were also self made men since James' family banished him and Ichika wasn't on the best side of his family other than his mother, elder sister and grandfather. Anyway, the fact that Ichika knew such a person wasn't why they were surprised, it was the location they were currently in.

"Sin, why the fuck are we in Antartica? My nuts are freezing man." Ichika looked at his philipino friend but before he could say anything he was beaten to the punch by the french gunslinger

"Adan, you numbskull, we are here because we can find intelligence about the fuckers who jumped us in Wakanda"

"Oh Yeah?" Started Adan "How is that you genius?"

"Well..." started The french lesbian before Ichika answered

"The inscription that was on the endlave cyborg was made by me, only two copies of said program exist, one is the one used by a japanese contracter that handles my accounts and my job requests." that was a lie since he handled both things. "The other was given as a gift to James McCullen XXIV as gift for his cooperation in making a gun for me." The songstress was made as a collaboration between Ichika and James, as a thank you Ichika updated his security system and fire wall. Seeing his answer, the others stopped talking as they waited.

 **Scene change :**

When they reached their hosts office, they saw an office filled with many antic weapons used as decorations, from halberds to shields, from daggers to samurai swords. A mahagony desk stood in the middle of the room covered with papers and paperwork but it was the person that sat behind the desk that had all their attention. He was a tall individual, six feet six at least, with a swimmers build, dressed in a black three piece Armani suit. He had black hair with grey highlights a handsome face and grey eyes that shone with wisdome and intellect. Seeing Sin and his associates enter, James stood up and took an object from behind his desk, an Iron mask.

"During the french british war, my ancestor James McCullen I was caught selling weapons to both sides, he was condemned by the british to wear this iron mask for the rest of his life, they called him destro destroyer of nations." James then put the mask on his desk and continued with his rich Irish accent "Seeing this mask always makes me remember the first rule of selling weapons..." At that Squall continued sarcastically

"Not to sell to both sides?"

"No..." answered both Ichika and James before the british man continued "Not to be caught selling to both sides." Both the arms dealers shared a laugh, after that the Irish arms dealer sat down and motioned for the rest to sit down as well, when everyone was sitting down, McCullen started

"You know, when you said you were coming to discuss something important, I didn't think you were coming to talk about one of my rogue imployees."

"So you admit that the nanomachines technology were yours." said Ichika

"Yes I admit that the nanomachines were my company's, but they weren't supposed to be on the market for a few more years, there were some glitches that were still not adressed yet."

"Glitches?" asked Gendo

"Yes, the emotional suppressors, were just that, suppressors after a while the emotions came floating to the surface and the person simply cracked under them, severe case of PTSD for soldiers that saw the type of extreme combat that PMCs see, not ideal for business, and the remote manipulation part, didn't exist in our version of that I can assure you." At that Ichika nodded before asking

"Who is your lead scientist on this." At that James simply sighed before pressing a button on the table showing a holografic image of short man with a round face, a small nose, a balding head, green eyes behind round glasses and saying

"Doctor Yuri Petrovich was our lead specialist on the nanomachines project, his work was years ahead of anyone else and the fact that we allowed living test subjects, all criminals and murderers, was a bonus for him alongside the financial support, but when we refused to allow him to put the current nanomachines on the market he simply disappeared with all his research, it has been more than three months since then and I was hoping you can find him and bring him back but now seeing what the man is involved in I think it's better for the good doctor Petrovich to just... disappear." Ichika nodded before asking

"Consider it done, and my special order?" McCullen took a special black two meters tall case withthe M.A.R.S industries logo on it before giving it to Ichika alongside a USB stick.

"I will have you know that it wasn't easy to get it done to your specs in time but not impossible. Inside the USB is all our information on Petrovich and a small mission that you might want to take." after that James bidon them farewell and the mercenaries left the secret base.

 **Scene change :**

Inside the jet, each of the mercenaries were passing the time differently, Ichika and Gendo were sitting down and reading the file on Yuri Petrovich, Adan and T'chaka were playing video games. Squall was clearing her guns and Maria was sharpening her blades. All of them seemed immersed in their activities but they were all thinking about the last mission and they all wanted the same thing, revenge on the people who beat them. After a while Adan asked

"Ichika, how are we going to find this Petrovich fellow?" At that both Ichika and Danzo were about to answer him when Computer's voice came from one of the many speakers on the plane

"[Ichika-sama, you have a call.]

"Who is it?"

"[The caller is the one with the caller ID 'the Rabbit Bitch Queen' Ichika-sama]" At that Ichika's face became more focused before he answered

"I'll take the call in my room."

"[Understood Ichika-sama.]"

 **Scene change :**

When Ichika closed the door to his room, a display appeared shadowing the caller's ID. Ichika simply sat down on his bed and said

"The line is secure your highness."

"Hello Ichika-kun. I read about Wakanda, very dangerous business that I sincerelly hope you are okay."

"Thank you for your concern your highness but nothing happened to me."

"Good... Good, if something happened to you I don't know what Setsura-chan would do without you."

"Again thank you for your concern, but excuse me for being blunt but I suppose asking about my health isn't the only reason why you are trying to get in contact with me." At that a quiet chuckle came from the other line before the empress spoke again

"Straight to the point just like your mother I like that, the reason why I called was because I wanted to ask you if the current state of Wakanda will be a threat to our investements in the region...especially our recent energy investement." Ichika simply nodded before saying

"Not at all, all the villages in the way of the new power line that is going to be constructed have been handled."

"Oh... And how have they been handled?" Ichika simply said

"All five villages have been wiped out from the map, it seemed easier that way."

"Well that's unfortunate..."

"Please don't play games with me your highness, you gave me this mission expecting me to do just that since we both know that the villagers weren't going to leave so please stop pretending to care!" while inwardly his mind he was saying something along the lines of 'Go rot in hell you damned bitch!' It also seemed that the empress didn't care about his little outburst since she simply continued on

"From what you have told so far and from what I managed to gather on my own it seems that you are going after a certain doctor Petrovich."

"I don't know how you managed to figure that out." came Ichika's answer, Usagi simply chuckled before saying

"I am quite familiar with doctor Petrovich's work he was also one of the lead scientist on the genesys program." At that Ichika stiffened, not knowing why the empress was bothering with such intel...unless

"I want you to kill Petrovich and his latest innovation number 90, I also want you to kill any person related to the genesys program Ichika-kun, the information is in the file I sent you" after that Ichika opened the file immediately and saw his targets, that was Usagi's modus operundi, giving him his targets and their complete profiles, not that Ichika didn't double check everything by himself, and telling him to kill them, the first was Yuri Petrovich, the second was a beautiful young woman with red hair and green eyes, the final one was...

"Are you out of you freaking mind! That's Antoine Leclerc, CEO of the bank internationale, the biggest bank on the planet, the man is unkilleable, I know because fourteen people tried and died to kill him." At that Usagi simply said

"I believe that where the others failed you will succeed, I have full trust in your capabilities."

"Is this about that time in Madrid where I destroyed the disk instead of bringing it back? I already apologised for that."

"I don't know what you are talking about but since that time the country's assets were still secured so I didn't mind. Anyway, the other reason I called is that Setsura-chan is having a recital and I thought you should know" At that the communication ended and Ichika left his room

 **Scene change :**

When Ichika returned to his friends he simply sat down and said

"Adan, as for your question the answer is simple." he said while showing the file on Petrovich "In this file is the entire life of Yuri Petrovich and with it me and Gendo will be able to find our man and kill the man in a very violent manner." At that Adan and the rest nodded Ichika also decided to say something else

"We will meet in Roanapur in three days understood?" At that the rest nodded since they knew that Ichika was unlike them, a person with other responsabilities and a public life other than the life of sin. And that his responsabilities sometimes made so that he had to take a leave from certain cases or jobs.

 **Scene change :**

A loud clapping sound echoed in the large music hall as another performer bowed in front of the captivated crowd before leaving the stage.

"She's next," Ichika commented excitedly as he adjusted his tuxedo that he bought for the event. It took Ichika some time to get from the airport to the venue of the event; he also broke several laws because he used his car to get to the venue, but it would be worth it just to see her perform. He was going to see her at her moment of triumph and that's what matters the most.

"Next, from seirin elementary school, Byakushiki Setsura, playing Alkan's Scherzo Diabolico." There was a collective gasp from the audience as the musical piece was announced.

"Alkan! The composer whose works make pianists cry!"

"Even for a pro, playing that song takes all the skill a pianist has!"

"Someone like her shouldn't be able to play Alkan, she's an amateur!"

Ichika could not help but shook his head as he glared at those who said those words. She'll prove them wrong, he is sure of that.

They didn't know her, they didn't know his Setsura.

Setsura can do anything, she is that amazing.

A young girl wearing an elegant, silver dress that didn't show much skin yet highlighted her modeste curves, stepped in front of the crowd before bowing before them. The audience of music enthusiast, those who had seen her for the first time, could not help but be captivated and dazzled by the woman's appearance. For those who had seen her for the first time, they cannot help but looked at her like she was the epitome of beauty, and she probably is.

Setsura possessed a beauty that only appears once in every generation. She possess modest curves that suit her perfectly, her pale, Caucasian-like skin was as white as snow, her emerald eyes seemed to illuminate the dark hall, and her long diamond white hair that reaches all the way down to her lower back area, with a small portion braided on the right side of her face and neatly tucked behind her ear, was glimmering like a beautiful gem. She has a calm and soothing expression on her face that gave her a fragile appeal that would make anyone hesitate to touch her in fear of her shattering and it would make anyone want to protect her. Her smile was incredibly pretty that most men in the audience were breathless.

Setsura sat down in front of the piano. She visibly took a calming breath before her delicate fingers touch the keys of the piano and with a flicker of her fingers; she started playing the difficult musical piece.

In the next five minutes or so, the audience was treated with a very unique and beautiful sound; the sound was so amazing that some of those who were listening to Setsura's playing for the first time questioned whether or not she was a pro pianist.

What sensual playing…What rich expression for such a difficult song…She played the piece with such technical precision that it was hard to imagine that she was an amateur, and the emotions that she was emitting with every sound that she was producing was simply awe inspiring.

The crowd of music enthusiast was stunned still as they were treated with the best performance of the night but all of them pale in comparison at the bliss of one person in the crowd, whom was enjoying her performance to the fullest. Ichika was looking at Setsura with barely concealed fondness and joy as he enjoyed her recital to the fullest of his ability. He loves classical music a lot but he enjoys her playing the piano, knowing that it soothes her and it is something that she enjoys doing. Watching her do the things she likes was already enough for him.

After five minutes or so, the performance ended and the crowd was silence before a loud cheer that threatens to blow the roof off the music hall erupted. Everybody showed their appreciation to the beautiful musical piece that Setsura performed in front of them. An amateur pianist playing a composition of Alkan with that kind of level deserves the highest praise possible.

As the crowd applauded loudly, Ichika, who appreciated Setsura's performance the most, stood up from where he was sitting and walked away discretely from the crowd. He will not show his appreciation towards Setsura by just a simple applause, no, she deserves more, much, much more.

 **Scene Change:**

"Beautifully played as always, Setsura-chan." The music instructor of Seirin elementary school commented with a proud smile on her face.

"It was nothing, Aoi-sensei." Setsura replied with a small smile as she glanced at the trophy given to her as the winner of the competition. It was a cup made out of glass and it was beautifully crafted. "I just did what you taught me to do." Setsura said casually as she gave her music instructor a smile. Setsura's voice was so gentle like the piano that she plays in her free time.

"Nonsense Setsura-chan, nonsense. I can't play any composition of Alkan that well; I doubt anyone could play Alkan as well as you do." Aoi, the music instructor, commented with a chuckle. "Are you sure you don't want to be a pro pianist? You could do so well in the music industry." Aoi urged her student but Setsura merely shook her head.

"As tempting as that sound, sensei, the path that I choose does not involve music." Setsura declined politely. "If I earn money by playing the piano, it removes any form of passion that I put in my performances." Setsura reasoned, astonishing the middle age music instructor.

"You are a rare musician, Setsura." Aoi-sensei stated with admiration. "Usually, people with your kind of talent would not hesitate to sell their talents for a quick buck." Aoi-sensei said with disdain. "But still, you not going to be a professional pianist is such a waste of talent."

"Sorry, sensei." Setsura apologies with a laugh as the two stopped in front of a door with Setsura's initials written on the door frame.

"Hurry up and change, Setsura-chan, I'll drive you home." The instructor prompted Setsura with a light shove. "Having a beautiful girl like you out in the streets at night alone isn't advisable." Aoi-sensei commented, much to Setsura's frustration.

"Sensei, I'm not that beautiful." Setsura said in frustration.

"Your right, you are way more beautiful than that." Setsura suddenly stopped walking as a familiar voice echoed in the corridor. She and her music instructor shifted their head to the source of the voice, only to see a man holding a bouquet of flowers in his hands. The said man was wearing a coat with a hood covering his face. "You were amazing back there, Setsura-chan." The figure commented, pride evident in his voice as he threw the bouquet of flowers towards her.

Aio wondered who the man was and what his relationship with her favorite student is, but she didn't ponder on it for long as Setsura caught the bouquet of flowers. She inhaled the scent of the Ayame flowers before dropping it to the ground and dashing towards that man and threw herself in his arms. "ONIISAMA," Setsura shouted happily as she wrapped her arms around his frame. "Were you watching, Oniisama?" Setsura asked curiously as Ichika wrapped one arm around her waist.

"Of course I was watching. I wouldn't miss watching your recital for the world." Ichika stated with a cheerful tone.

"But you said you had an important thing today!"

"I finish my assignement early…" Ichika told her before breaking her embrace and patting her on the head. "…and as much as I love keeping a perfect professional score with my clients, I love hearing you play the piano more. You make classical music even more breathtaking." Ichika complimented earning him a soft laugh from Setsura.

Aoi cough loudly as her face took a shade of pink. She was feeling like a bystander and feeling a bit bewildered at how the siblings in front of her interact with each other. I mean come on; they were holding each other like they would their lover. 'This explains why Shiba-chan never dated anyone.' Aoi thought as the siblings looked at her. She flinched a bit at the sight of her student glaring at her like she wanted her to implode.

"You must be her music instructor." Ichika said as he walked towards her but not before giving tucking another flower behind her left her. "Here you go, Setsura-chan, your favorite." Setsura smiled vibrantly as she took the Ayame flower that her brother gave her and inhaled its scent.

"They are very lovely, Oniisama." Setsura said as she enjoyed the fragrance of her favorite flower.

"Just like you." Ichika whispered to her, making her blush.

'Okay, Shiba-chan has a brother complex. Who would have guessed?' Aoi thought as the urge to run off suddenly grew.

"Hello, my name is Tatsuya, Byakushiki Tatsuya." Ichika greeted, using the name that he always use whenever he introduce himself as Setsura's big brother. "And you must be Aoi Shiho, I heard so much about you from Setsura-chan, all of them good." Ichika said while extending his hand for a handshake.

Aoi shook his hand before looking at him intently. So you must be the big brother that Setsura talk very highly about. It's pleasure to finally meet you…"

"The pleasure is all mine. I would like to give you my thanks for taking care of her in school. It is sad to say that I cannot take care of her full time because my school is far away from hers." Ichika gave her a bow to show how grateful he is.

'Hohoho, he must be one of those rare men in today's society. What a polite person.' Aoi thought, impress at the attitude of her favorite student's brother. "No thanks needed, Shiba-chan is such a wonderful person after all."

"I know, that's why I always worry about her." Ichika muttered under his breath as he looked at his little sister before turning his attention back to the music instructor. "If you pardon me, I will take my sister home now. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"I don't mind, Shiba-san, but please do be careful." Aoi said worriedly. "Your sister tends to attract attention."

"I am well aware of that but do not worry, she can take care of herself and I will send those who try to touch her to an early grave." The voice that Ichika used was so threatening that Aoi wanted to hide under a rock.

"Can I have my brother now?" Setsura asked with an impatient tone, startling Aio. She had never heard her student speaking in a tone like that. Setsura walked towards her and shoved the trophy to her music instructor's hands, startling Aoi again. "Here, give this to the principal, I don't have space to put it in display anyway." Setsura said before grabbing her brother's arm and wrapping herself in it.

Ichika shook his head at this as he tightened his hold on her little sister's delicate frame. "I'll cook you dinner, what do you say?"

"You'll cook my favorite, right?" Setsura requested with a cute expression and her eyes set on her best puppy dog eyes, making Ichika submit without even him knowing it.

"For you, of course," Ichika said before planting a kiss on Setsura's head, much to her delight. "Come, let's fly home." The two then walked pass the stun music instructor and entered Setsura's private waiting room.

Aoi turned around and was still kind off disturbed at the fact that Setsura's brother has his arms around her sister's shoulder in affectionate way. It didn't help that Setsura, who was a head shorter than her brother, has her head resting on his chest and she was smiling a smile that made her beauty more divine.

The two of them, instead of looking like siblings, looked like lovers.

"Okay, I need a roll of tissue and a DVD of incest related porn." Aoi muttered, having the urge to watch some R-rated movie after the thing that she had witness. "But it's such a shame; I didn't get to see Tatsuya-san's (Ichika) face. He must look like a prince considering how pretty Setsura is."

 **Scene change :**

After spending time with Setsura, Ichika decided to take her to her favourite restaurant, the golden fleece in the new Tokyo tower. Unlike the old one the new Tokyo tower was very similar to the eifel tower in Paris. After that he took her home and they spent the night the whole night simply chilling while he baked for her her favourite cake. After they had the cake, the siblings simply decided to hit the hay and Setsura using her **[Koi Inu no Me Maho (Puppy Dog Eyes Magic)]** forced Ichika to let her sleep with him. When the next day came, Ichika bid his sister farewell while promessing her that he will finish his current mission post-haste. Ichika decided that he had another important delivery to make.

 **Scene change :**

"Hello Ichika-kun how are you doing on this fine day" said a woman that is twenty-two years old, and can be describe as the perfect beauty, with red eyes and long black hair tied into a half up and with a slender yet athletic looking body. She was wearing a white top with a black fur jacket along with navy short shorts and thigh-high stiletto boots with kneepads. Her name is Reiraku Misaya, and the number of monickers that this godess in human flesh had was astonishing, though the only one that both she and Ichika cared about was the second coming of Isane the devil. Yes, I said had because six years ago she was injured and crippled from the waist down. Ichika simply sat down and said

"Hello Misaya-nee, I just came to ask about how your new 'legs' are treating you. Are they to your liking? Have you properly adjusted yet?" Misaya just smiled at his show of concern before answering

"My legs are quite fine. As for my adjustment, I have regained at least 73% of my original mobility, by ends week, I will have regained 100% of my original mobility." after that she turned in her chair, gaving Ichika her back and stated with a beautiful smile that was hidden from him

"By month's end, I would be the same sword that your mother wielded." Ichika smiled at that before saying

"That is wonderfull to hear Misaya-nee. I am glad for you, I really I am." At that Misaya smiled and remembered how everything changed after her injury.

None of her friends came to visit her after the crippling injury she had, her family stayed with her during those troubling times but she decided to stay away from them leaving Yokohama where her clan was based to come to live in Tokyo, her fiancee left her, apparently, he did not want to be engage or to have anything to do with a cripple. The single thought of the white prince of the country was enough to fille with wrath, but that anger left her when she remembered that she was in the presence of Ichika... Ah Ichika he and his mother, her old teacher, were the only ones that were and still are there for her, when she was injured Isane took time from her schedule to visit her and she found her a job as a military consultant that was very high paying, Ichika left her handle his accounts and he visited her at least thrice a month sometimes just to chat with her. And more importantly He found a way to give her back her old life, the life of a soldier that she missed and for that she would be eternally grateful.

After a little chat, Ichika cooked dinner for both of them and bid Misaya farewell.

 **Scene change :**

There are many words to describe Orimura Isane, formerly Ayanami Isane.

Most of them were very colorful.

Orimura Isane was the most hated woman of Asia, and with good reasons too.

Orimura Isane was the most sadistic and ruthless soldier in japanese history, but she was also the most efficient. If there was a word to describe Isane as a soldier, perfection would be it.

Efficient, calculative, cunning, skillful, powerful, a natural born leader, she was everything a soldier and a magician should be and should strive to be.

As a soldier and a magician, Orimura Isane is the ideal model, and that's one of the many reason why her squadron would follow her from hell and back willingly with no hesitation whatsoever.

Orimura Isane was also an excellent instructor. She can bring out the best out of anyone, and that was evident considering that her squadron, her immediate subordinates, every single one of them were killing machines with skills that would frightened anyone.

With her leadership, she and her squadron had many victories during the Asian war. They were undefeated actually.

As a human being on the other hand, Orimura Isane is at the level of Adolf Hitler. Actually, to be honest, she is worse than the German Fuehrer had ever been.

Orimura Isane is a person that does not give a damn just as long as she fulfills the mission given to her, and she will always leaned towards the method that will finish the mission the quickest and the most efficient way, which means that she will do anything and will stoop to any lows just to finish her mission.

Her tactics range from ordinary military tactics, performed as perfectly and as flawlessly as humanly possible, to immoral tactics that would make anyone feel disgusted.

Orimura Isane would kill children, would plunder and decimate an entire city, would defile graves without remorse, would perform inhumane torture, and would allow women and children to be rape right in front of her as long as the mission is a success.

As a human being, Orimura Isane lacks a moral compass, compassion, love, and any other positive emotion that makes a person a human being.

To be honest, Orimura Isane had abandoned her humanity long ago to be the best soldier that she could possibly be.

And she was hated by every soldier, with the exception of her personal squadron, and noble in the country because of it. She was even hated by her own children, and she did not give a damn.

As a mother, Orimura Isane is the poster girl for the worst mother in the world. She doesn't have a single iota of maternal instincts. For her, her children, with the exception of her son, are nothing but nuisance, and that sentiment was shared by her daughters.

Her daughters hated her as much as she hated her daughters, and that is saying something.

Still, regardless of her many faults as a human being, there were two people that admired her very dearly, and those two are Ichika.

Ichika, being her son, absolutely adored her, and he always does his to make her proud.

And she was always proud of her son.

 **Scene change :**

Orimura Isane was in a foul mood, the reason for that was the annoying meeting that she just had with the other generals. Today was her birthday and her she is, in the middle of nowhere, with morons that knew next to nothing about war and that reached their current positions in the japanese military simply by kissing the ass of their superiors. And the worst part was that they thought that they could tell her what to do, HER, who had been fighting before they were even born, fighting while she was still a child herself, since she was five years old actually. How depressing, what she wouldn't do for some of her Ichika's cooking. When she entered her personal tent after greeting her subordinates, an amazing aroma hit her nostrils, not believing her nose she entered and saw a five star meal put on a table in the middle of the room, she would recognize the cooking anywhere, being her sons cooking. As she sat down she opened the menu and saw

 **Hors d'Oeuvre:** Red Wine-Braised Baby Octopus with Black Olives. (red wine 35 year old vintage)

 **Soup:** Creamy Mushroom Soup.

 **Fish Dish:** Tuna Carpaccio.

 **Meat Dish:** Beef Wellington.

 **Main Course:** Red wine risoto with black trufles (red wine 35 year old vintage).

 **Dessert:** Triple Chocolate Layer Cake.

 **Drink:** Summer Whiskey (The alcohol content is said to be 83%, roughly the same as Pure Grain Alcohol. 30 years old vintage.)

 _Bon appétit._

 _Dear mother,_

 _Well today is your birthday so I thought that since you can't come home for me to cook for you then I shall bring my cooking all the way to you wherever you are, you know me I am not that good at making letters I prefer to speak directly with people after all but all I have to say is..._

 _HAPPY BIRTHDAY._

After finishing reading the menu and the note, she smiled before sitting down and started her dinner, tomorrow she was going to punish the guards, even if it was her son giving her her birthday dinner someone still managed to sneak past them and for her men that is simply unacceptable.

 **Scene change:**

An anassuming yacht, that would be the assumption of anyone looking at the boat that was floating a few miles from Abkhazia, a disputed territory, located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. On the boat were two individuals that were famous or infamous in their own ways: Hanzo Gendo and T'chaka, the two mercenaries were sitting in front of many moniters and studying the schematics of their new assignement.

"Is everyone online?" started Gendo.

 **Scene Change:**

The **MQ-133C** was a stealth aircraft resembling a flying wing. It was utilized during the late 2040's to drop personel secretely in enemy territories, of course this model was much better than the ones on the market since Ichika and Gendo personnaly worked over it and they were thye best in their fields of mechanical engeneering and programing. Anyway this baby was being used by Ichika to reach his own drop point.

"Sin is in position, everything is opperational."

 **Scene Change:**

The SEAL Delivery Vehicle or (SDV) is a manned submersible and a type of Swimmer Delivery Vehicle or diver propulsion vehicle used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions and is also operated by the Royal Navy's Special Boat Service who operates 3 SDV's.

The SDV is used primarily for covert or clandestine missions to denied access areas (either held by hostile forces or where military activity would draw notice and objection). This one was a two man special delivery system that was being used by both Squall and Maria as they were being transported to their drop point.

"Bullet and Jack are in position."

 **Scene Change:**

On an island three miles from the coast of Abkhazia, on a small outpost of twenty men stood Adan having killed everyone on the outpost before they even knew what hit them, the man maybe huge but he was used to operate covertly since he joined Ichika and his crew, he was sitting in front of a computer that controled the laser submarine defense grid and the aerial missile defense system, he inserted a USB key to the computer and let the program that the nerd had created do its magic.

"This is Psycho, the oupost is ours and we are in... I repeat, the oupost is ours and we are in."

 **Scene Change:**

"Sin is in position, everything is opperational."

"Bullet and Jack are in position."

"This is Psycho, the oupost is ours and we are in... I repeat, the oupost is ours and we are in."

"All right how is it nerd?" asked T'chaka abord the boat since he was in front of the command.

"Everything is green good to go... Brat" Answered the human cyborg causing the Wakandan born mercenary to grumble before saying

"Allright all systems are go Sin, Bullet, Jack... Let's recap the mission objectives shall we."

"I know you miss me T'chaka, but we've been all over the materials." said Adan, the others simply sighed before T'chaka simply answered

"That's what you said before Montenegro..."

"And Monte Real..." quipped Squall

"And Chicago..." said Ichika

"And..." started Hanzo before Adan stopped saying

"Allright Allright I get it okay get on with the briefing"

"Objectives of course are enter Abkhazia, neutralize all the terrorists, and restore the rightful governement... what's left of it anyway. The president and most of the cabinet have been killed, and a military junta's been established. The terrorists brain-jacked all the high ranking officers, and their cyborgs scattered the rank and file. The few leaders who have survived have no way of openly opposing the new regime. That's why they called us." finished T'chaka.

"Andrey Dolzaev," started Danzo "leader of the occupation forces. An extremist, linked to both the St Pettersburg massacre of 2085 and last years terror spree in Georgia, and his arm supplier. None other than Desperado Enforcement LLC."

"N'Mani's killers."

"If we don't stop them here" said T'Chaka "they could destabilize the entire region. Stopping that is your mission Sin and be a distraction for our other objective."

"Roger that."

"Your mission, Bullet and Jack is even more important, on the north east of your drop zone, the only M.A.R.S. industries facility in this part of Europe has been taken over by the terrorists a couple days ago, you two are to go to that facility and retrieve all the data there before waiting for Psycho and blowing the damn thing sky high."

"Roger that." Said Squall.

"Roger that." Said Maria.

"Roger that." Said Adan.

"Very well since everyone knows their roles all I can say is operation take back Abkhazia and screw Desperado is a go. Good luck and good hunting everyone." and just like that an opperation that would decide not only the fate of a nation but that of the entire continent of Europe was started.


End file.
